
Copyright N^.. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



COURSE OF STUDY IN THE 
EIGHT GRADES 

VOL. I 



[rt^y^^ 



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COURSE OF STUDY IN THE 
EIGHT GRADES 



VOL. I 
Grades I to IV 



BY 



CHARLES A. McMURRY, Ph.D. 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd. 
1906 

All rights reserved 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Cooies Received : 
JAN 16 190b 
Copyright Entry 

£LASS CiL XXc, No. 
^ COPY B. 



V\ 



Copyright, 1906, 
By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. 



Set up and electrotyped. Published January, 1906. 



PREFACE 

This " Course of Study " is an effort to bring 
together the results of a series of labors, both theo- 
retic and practical, upon the various branches of the 
common school. 

During the last fifteen years the author has taken 
up one after another the common school subjects, 
and has attempted to work out the plan and move- 
ment of each study in proper relation to the whole 
curriculum. The result of this is a series of eight 
volumes of Special Method, in each of which the 
selection and arrangement of material for one study 
is carefully planned and the method of treatment is 
illustrated. 

In bringing together the results of all these efforts 
into a somewhat full and complete course of study 
in two volumes, it has been found necessary to dis- 
cuss in a broad way the chief problem in the present 
organization of the school course and to point out 
the adopted line of solution. 

The task of laying out a liberal and practical 
course of study for the common school of America 
is one of very large proportions, and might well 



Vi PREFACE 

employ the energies of the greatest mind for a full 
lifetime of well-directed labor. 

The plain schoolmaster, however, must have a 
hand in this work, and this is our excuse for at- 
tempting what may seem to many a preposterous 
undertaking. 

The present course does not include an outline in 
drawing and music. It is our hope that this part of 
the work may be accomplished later with the assist- 
ance of expert teachers in these subjects. 

Those who wish for a discussion of the reasons for 
the courses here outlined will find them explained in 
the various volumes of Special Method as follows : — 

Special Method in the Reading of English Classics. 

Special Method in Primary Reading and Oral Work 
with Stories. 

Special Method in Geography. 

Special Method in History. 

Special Method in Elementary Science. 

Special Method in Arithmetic. 

Special Method in Language. 

Special Method in Manual Arts. (Now in prepa- 
ration.) 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Enrichment of the Course i 

The Present Problem in the Course of Study . ii 

Economy of Simple Aims i7 

Simplification and Organization of the School 

Course ^^ 

Oral Work in Literature 53 

Reading ^^ 

Language . ^^ 

Memory Selections 99 

History ^°" 

Geography . . ^^3 

Elementary Science ^39 

Arithmetic ^9^ 

The Handbook ^ii 

The Manual Arts 225 



Vll 



COURSE OF STUDY IN THE 
EIGHT GRADES 

ENRICHMENT OF THE COURSE 

In order to get a preliminary view of what has 
taken place in recent years in the enrichment of our 
school course, we will merely tabulate the various 
kinds of new educative material that have lately 
lodged themselves in the school. 

First is the best literature suitable for young folks 
from the treasuries of our own country and of other 
lands. It reaches back into all ages that produced 
valuable literature and includes all varieties. This 
alone is a field abounding in rich resources. Closely 
allied to it is history, that of our own land and of 
other nations, including early traditions and stories, 
the striking epochs of the historic nations, the 
biographies of leading characters whether heroes, 
poets, generals, statesmen, pioneers, religious teach- 
ers, scholars, artists, scientists, men or women. 

Second is the broad sweep of natural science studies, 
nature study in and out of doors. In its wide range 
this includes select contributions from a dozen great 
sciences, familiar to popular report, and each includ- 

VOL. I — B I 



2 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

ing a body of knowledge far beyond the mastery of a 
single man of learning. Especially in its more strik- 
ing and commonplace manifestations, and in its appli- 
cation to men's needs, science study is quietly pushing 
its way into schoolrooms and under the very noses 
of school-teachers. 

In close connection with geography and natural 
science, industrial and vocational studies (directly and 
indirectly) are supplying us with rich materials and 
bulky text-books for children to master. 

Out of all this, thirdly, is emerging the vague but 
gigantic form of a new study sometimes called manual 
training. It is now spreading its clumsy limbs some- 
what promiscuously through the whole school course. 
No one seems to know as yet how large a place this 
intruder is to occupy, but a fear falls upon many that 
some of the old studies and teachers may have to 
move out of the way or shrink back into a corner to 
make room for this giant upstart. 

Fourthly, the physical training of children is taking 
on larger proportions, and is demanding definite time 
and place in the programme with gymnasia and 
equipment. 

Fifthly, there is getting to be a vague but pro- 
nounced feeling, almost conviction, that the fine arts 
have been badly neglected in schools and in the 
general scheme of education. 

Sixthly, the primary school of late has taken up 
into itself a good share of the kindergarten ideas and 



ENRICHMENT OF THE COURSE 3 

materials, games, stories, and social activities, while 
from the high school the grammar grades have begun 
to draw down algebra, geometry, German, and French, 
and even Latin to fill up what one might suppose 
must be a depleted course of study. 

Seventhly and lastly, we should not forget that a 
goodly number of jealous schoolmasters demand that 
we shall begin to put some real stress on the mastery 
of reading, writing, and arithmetic. 

Summing it all up, it is not too much to say that the 
school has begun to bring the whole range of human 
life and activity in select typical forms under its pur- 
view. This comprehends broadly the whole history 
of mankind in its typical and striking manifestations, 
the whole run of nature, animate, inanimate, and its 
relation to man, and all those great institutions, occu- 
pations, and traditional bodies of knowledge that man 
has accumulated in the course of centuries. A com- 
plete university with all its multitude of sciences 
covering the full range of human thought and ex- 
perience has no broader foundation than the course 
of study in the elementary school. 

But this is a very crude and superficial mode of 
surveying our course of study as a great accumula- 
tion of varied materials. It is far more interesting 
to ask ourselves : How came we by this enormously 
expanded course of study ? How does it happen that 
in spite of powerful conservative tendencies and con- 
victions of scholars, against the strong protests and 



4 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

Opposition of experienced school men and women, 
against traditions that have held their own in the 
schools for centuries, almost suddenly, in our time, 
the doors and windows of the school have been 
thrown wide open and all outdoors, past and present, 
has been taken in ? 

Evidently the school itself is not responsible for 
these results. Great forces have been at work out- 
side of the school which have simply made them- 
selves felt in the curriculum. As Dr. Dewey says 
(" The Educational Situation," p. 85) : " This multipli- 
cation of study is not primarily a product of the 
schools. The last hundred years has created a new 
world, has revealed a new universe, material and 
social. The educational problem is not a result of 
anything within our own conscious wish or intuition, 
but of the conditions of the contemporary world." 

The leaven of great changes has been at work in 
the whole social fabric, and has made itself felt also in 
the school programme. Throughout the whole school 
are heard the echoes of all the powerful ideas that 
are modifying society. The school is thus a miniature 
world and has naturally absorbed into itself the whole 
range of human occupation and experience. Through 
the medium of the school the great human world 
outside with its institutions and social ideas is trying 
to impress itself upon the child. The child and 
the world are the two great living agencies that have 
been acting upon each other, and the school is merely 



ENRICHMENT OF THE COURSE 5 

a medium through which the contact is regulated. 
One might think that the world with all its power 
would overwhelm the child. But rational parents 
and teachers and all friends are naturally the child's 
defenders and advocates. We may say, therefore, 
that the two forces now at work so vigorously in 
shaping our course of study are society at large with 
its urgent demands and consideration for the child 
with his instincts and powers. This can be abun- 
dantly illustrated in the present studies. For thirty 
years now in this country the science studies have 
been steadily pressed upon the attention of teachers, 
just as in the world at large science has everywhere 
extended and intrenched itself. In the same way 
the commercial, industrial, and economic interests so 
powerful in business life have moulded and enlarged 
courses of study. The great moral, religious, and 
intellectual forces outside of the schools have likewise 
stood strenuously for literature, temperance, history, 
and civic instruction in schools. Manual training is 
a direct response to the demand for an experimental 
acquaintance with the fundamental arts of life and 
sympathy with millions of artisans in their daily toil. 
Music and fine art beautify and ennoble life outside 
the school, — why not within ? Whether we will or 
no, the school studies echo and reecho the ideas taught 
in the religious service of the churches, bringing them 
thus into a much broader contact with other forces. 
It may be said that all the strong and valuable influ- 



6 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

ences or forces in society are now sharing in the 
effort to mould our school curriculum. The circle of 
influences is now complete and the result is our pres- 
ent congested course of study. There is at least one 
advantage in this, — we know what we have to reckon 
with. 

On the other side, over against the influences of 
society, stands the child with his protectors. Com- 
mon sense would suggest that there is no use in 
crushing the child with the weight of this social cur- 
riculum, even though loaded with the good intentions 
of society. Psychology, child study, and experience 
with children in school and home must give us 
the standards by which we shall judge what part of 
society's demands are to be allowed. Every study 
that asks for admission to the school course, no mat- 
ter by what social forces it is backed, must run the 
gantlet of criticism by child study experts. Child 
study not only criticises the new studies as they 
appear asking admission, but it sets up a number of 
positive demands of its own based upon experience 
with children, upon knowledge of their physical and 
mental growth, their reactions to educational stimuli, 
their instincts and interests. 

In many important ways the study of children has 
modified the materials and activities of the school. 
The observation of motor activities, the study of mus- 
cular and nervous control, of the constructive and 
imitative instincts, the study of fatigue, of games and 



ENRICHMENT OF THE COURSE ^ 

plays and their uses, the care as to defective senses 
and abnormalities, the epochal changes in childhood 
and youth, have greatly influenced the treatment of 
children in schools. 

We may say by way of summary that our present 
course of study is a necessary social product, the out- 
come of the strongest forces at work in the great 
human hive outside the school, but this has been 
modified, accommodated, and rationalized by a con- 
sideration of the powers and needs of children. 

We may observe here that there is no real conflict 
between the child and the social world. By nature 
and inheritance they have the closest affinity and 
kinship. Not only the present world of industrial, 
political, and other social forces, but all the accumu- 
lated knowledge and culture of history are the birth- 
right of the child. They are his food, drink, and 
exercise, if supplied in proper sequence and adjust- 
ment. 

The education of children is therefore the working 
out of a comprehensive and all-sided social problem. 
Dr. Dewey says, speaking of the high school (" The 
Educational Situation," p. 79): "Our problem is 
rather to study the typical necessities of social life, 
and the active nature of the individual in his specific 
needs and capacities. Our task is on one hand to 
select and adjust the studies with reference to the 
nature of the individual thus discovered, and on the 
other hand to order and group them so that they 



8 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

shall most definitely and systematically represent the 
chief lines of social endeavor and social achievement." 

It is fortunate that this heaping up of new mate- 
rials in the school course has come at a time when 
both popular and scientific attention have been unusu- 
ally turned toward the study of child nature and 
growth. Without due respect for the natural powers 
and stages of growth in children, there would be no 
limit set to the quantity and variety of studies im- 
posed upon the school. In the necessary enrich- 
ment of the school programme even the old studies, as 
well as the new, have been compelled to justify their 
claims from the standpoint of the positive needs of 
children. 

As never before the demand has been made that 
studies be adjusted to the present needs of children 
rather than the future needs of adults. 

This selection and adaptation of knowledge materi- 
als according to the peculiar needs of childhood, gives 
a special flavor and quality to this enrichment of the 
school course. It is by no means merely an enlarge- 
ment and multiplication of studies. It is a select 
intellectual, moral, and physical diet, determined by a 
careful diagnosis of the conditions and needs of chil- 
dren. It means more nutritious mental food and 
better assimilation because it is better adapted to the 
tastes, interests, and powers of the young. The en- 
richment of the school course means the healthy 
expansion of the natural processes of child life, the 



ENRICHMENT OF THE COURSE 9 

opening up of hearty and vigorous activities in all 
the main lines. 

For example, a closer examination of the new histor- 
ical material that has found admission to the fourth, 
fifth, and sixth grades will show a decided preference 
for biographical and descriptive episodes which 
children easily and naturally enjoy. The manual 
arts, as they are working their way into schools, are 
a direct response to the children's own demands for 
congenial activities. Excursions and experiments in 
elementary science are fully appreciated by children. 
Good music is one of the greatest deHghts from ear- 
liest years. Well-selected poems and stories from the 
best authors are now used with hearty appreciation 
in all grades. The games and physical exercises 
which are becoming an important part of the daily 
programme serve to give a healthy tone to the whole 
school life. 

The result of this rational selection of appropriate 
labors and studies for children is a more complete 
absorption into actual life processes of all the culture 
elements of the school. It is a more abundant life 
which the children are sharing. A deeper and 
stronger current of actual experience is shaping their 
lives. 

Of course the criticism is often heard that all this 
so-called enrichment of the school course is so much 
foolish indulgence of the caprices and pleasure-seek- 
ing whims of children, but an examination of the new 



10 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

subject-matter that is being seriously incorporated 
into the course of study shows that it deals prima- 
rily with great and fundamental ideas that its 
ground purpose is to make strong the root connec- 
tion between child life and civilization. 



THE PRESENT PROBLEM IN THE COURSE 

OF STUDY 

For many years our common school curriculum 
has been thus growing more extensive and complex. 
Let us give first a fuller analysis of this growth and 
increasing complexity of studies. New studies have 
been added from time to time. The old simple 
group — reading, writing, and arithmetic — was first 
enlarged by adding grammar, geography, and history. 
Later on music, drawing, and gymnastics were intro- 
duced. Then came nature study, domestic science, 
and manual training with its various forms of con- 
struction. In such a numerous list we had almost 
forgotten to mention spelling, composition, and lan- 
guage lessons. Besides the foregoing, various suc- 
cessful attempts have been made to introduce as 
distinct studies, civics, German, Latin, physiology, 
hygiene, temperance and the effects of alcoholic 
drinks, agriculture, bookkeeping, the elements of 
algebra and geometry, current events, and certain 
trades, as carpentry and printing. ReHgion is taught 
as a regular study in parochial and sectarian schools 
and in the public schools of Europe. There are 
thus more than twenty studies which by gradual 

XI 



12 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

accumulation have held a more or less independent 
place in our course of study. 

Besides this, as suggested above, many of the older 
studies, as reading (literature), geography, and his- 
tory, have been greatly enlarged in their scope and 
quantity of material. American history, for example, 
was formerly taught only in the last year of the 
grammar school. Now it often extends through four 
or five years (from fourth to eighth grade) and 
includes a greatly increased quantity of historical 
matter. The literary materials used in our story 
work in primary grades and in the reading of classics 
in higher grades have had a broad extension. It is 
probable also that elementary science and manual 
training will soon require a much larger allotment of 
time and a fuller treatment than at present. Music, 
fine art, and physical education are likely to receive 
more attention in the immediate future. Many 
superintendents and secondary teachers insist that 
Latin should begin in the sixth or seventh grade 
rather than in the high school. Supplementary 
readers in geography, history, and natural science go 
much beyond the text-books in presenting a large 
assortment of additional knowledge for reference 
work. 

When it is remembered that in a really good 
school children should spend much time upon out- 
door excursions, in the school garden, and in the 
gymnasium, it seems evident that they will have 



THE PRESENT PROBLEM 1 3 

enough to keep them busy, both physically and 
mentally. 

It would be fair to add also that children having 
a good family library are expected to extend the 
narrow boundaries of school instruction into the rich 
fields of history, literature, science, current periodi- 
cals, politics, and religion, and most of all perhaps in 
good biography and fiction. 

As a result of this brief survey, it may be said that 
our present elementary course, if carried out, is over- 
crowded with the quantity and variety of materials. 
There are more studies than children can learn well, 
and more than teachers can teach well. Thorough- 
ness of work in all studies is, under these conditions, 
impossible. As a consequence much school work at 
present is careless, superficial, and even slovenly. 
The efforts of earnest and progressive teachers to 
keep up with all these increasing requirements and 
to secure the needed additions of knowledge and skill 
are praiseworthy, but it is next to impossible to meet 
the requirements. Departmental teaching by ex- 
perts in special subjects has been strongly urged as 
the solution of the problem. This would relieve the 
teacher, but would only add to the burdens of the 
children. For the tendency of experts is to make 
heavier demands in their special subjects. They 
would undoubtedly increase rather than diminish 
the crowded and overloaded condition of the school 
course. This course is primarily, however, for the 



14 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

children, and should be adapted to their needs rather 
than to those of the teachers. 

In the presence of this acknowledged congestion 
of school studies the whole body of teachers naturally 
falls into two distinct parties with opposing ideas as 
to the true remedy for the evil. First are those who 
demand a return to the three R's, to the old simple 
studies, with a few things well done and a course of 
study thoroughly practical. The argument favors a 
strong discipline upon a few essential things. 

The other party stands strongly for the new 
branches, for nature study, manual training, physical 
culture, and the general enrichment of the school 
course with literature, history, science, geography, 
and fine art. The demands of both these opposing 
parties of intelligent and experienced teachers must 
be seriously considered, and an answer satisfactory 
and convincing to each be given. 

We must admit that simplicity and thoroughness 
are essential to right education. The enrichment of 
child life through modern studies, as literature, his- 
tory, science, and physical and manual training, are 
equally essential. We must admit, therefore, the 
justice of the demands of both parties. There can 
then be no return to the three R's, to the primitive 
course of our grandfathers. Boys and girls trained 
in the narrow curriculum of the old-fashioned studies 
would not be quahfied for the new and complex con- 
ditions of modern life. Each age must have an edu- 
cation suited to its own needs. 



THE PRESENT PROBLEM 1 5 

Our present course of study is not a thing of 
caprice which we can change or modify at will. It 
is no mere invention of the schoolmaster. It is 
rather a world-product, the result of some centuries 
of steady development along educational lines. It is 
a very respectable product and contains probably 
the elements of the world's best wisdom in a form 
not yet fully organized and digested. It has taken 
more than three centuries of European and American 
history to bring together the crude materials and to 
give them a merely temporary arrangement. From 
the days of Comenius till now there has been a steady 
advance movement from a pure and narrow verbalism 
in the Latin tongue up through pictures, object 
lessons, geography, history, elementary science, and 
finally through manual training to pure realism. 
This progress has been strongly contested at every 
step by the forces of conservatism and reaction. Only 
those ideas have survived which have had a strength 
and vitality born of truth. 

Having reached this final goal with these accumu- 
lated materials, our present task is to organize them 
into a consistent course of study. The present over- 
loading of the curriculum is an inevitable stage in 
the evolution of studies. In Europe, where public 
school systems have had an earlier, longer, and 
similar evolution, a crowded curriculum has brought 
on the same acute problem. 

Our present course of study, then, is due to large 



1 6 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

world influences, over which the schoolmaster has 
had no control. He has attempted from time to 
time to stem the movement toward a broader, richer, 
and more realistic education, but under the influence 
of the reformers and powerful social forces, there 
has been no serious retardation of the onward move- 
ment. The school has been constantly under the 
pressure of masterful and moulding influences out- 
side of itself, which have brought on our present 
curriculum. The school has become an epitome 
of the stronger forces at work in our modern life. 
We have now all the best ideas and accumulated 
materials out of which to construct a school course. 
The main problem may be stated thus : How may 
we simplify and organize these studies so as to 
secure thoroughness of knowledge and discipline and 
leave out no essential studies ? how meet the needs 
of growing children and the demands of society, so 
that children may enter mature life fully equipped ? 



ECONOMY OF SIMPLE AIMS 

One of the chief advantages of a wisely ordered 
course of study is the economy of determining the 
simple leading aims which should control the 
teacher's work. These apply to the general aim of 
education for the whole school work and to the 
special controlling ideas in particular studies. 

It is natural that we should be at first under con- 
trol of many traditional aims and practices. These 
are, however, both numerous and conflicting, and the 
addition of many new studies has multiplied the 
complexity and confusion. Clear and controlling 
aims are the only means of bringing order out of 
such a chaos. A controlling aim in the whole plan 
or in a single study brings these forces into a com- 
mon perspective, where we can adjust them to one 
another, cast out the wrong or perverted notions, 
reduce secondary matters to their true place, recon- 
cile contradictions and bring the few essentials into 
cooperation and union. All this demands a very 
broad survey of the whole problem, a thoughtful 
and painstaking sifting out of theoretical and prac- 
tical difficulties, and the constant focussing of the 
mind upon commanding and imperative needs. 

VOL.1 — C 17 



1 8 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

When the controlling aim has been fixed, the 
secondary aims determined, and the means and 
methods which give practical and workable execution 
to these aims clearly defined, it is evident that a 
strong emphasis and persistent pursuit of these aims 
will bring about a marked economy of effort. Mere 
indefiniteness of aim causes waste of time. But 
clear aims also exclude large portions of some 
studies. In geography many whole lessons and 
numerous facts can be wholly omitted as not con- 
tributing to the aim. In history, likewise, the mem- 
orizing of long lists of events and tables can be 
omitted. Many lessons in science, language, and 
spelling are found to be useless in the light of im- 
portant aims. Greater thoroughness can be gained 
by putting the time thus saved upon the few essen- 
tials. By means of clear and consistent aims in 
arithmetic, we shall drop out a number of antiquated 
topics, and in all topics omit those difficult problems 
that are mere tests of ingenuity and do not increase 
a child's mastery of fundamental operations. 

This kind of economy, based upon a few organiz- 
ing ideas, is our present need. It seems that now 
for the first time we have reached a full view of the 
complete circle of influences that round out the edu- 
cation of a child. Comenius had such a large view 
for his age, but the conditions were unfavorable to 
any practical plan of execution. 

While it is true that each age must solve anew 



ECONOMY OF SIMPLE AIMS I9 

this problem of setting up guiding aims from its 
own wide horizon of experience, it can hardly be 
said that any age has ever grappled with it seriously 
and consciously, even according to its own lights. 
But now with our over-accumulations of old and new 
studies, and with the pressure of modern social 
needs, the organization of school forces upon central 
ideas and aims is the only possible road to economy 
of effort. 

To reduce waste, to eliminate non-essentials, to 
focus what is left upon a few large ideas, to bring 
even these larger ideas into subordination to an 
oligarchy of chief aims, and to put at the head of 
these aims the one purpose that dominates the whole, 
— this is to simplify and rationalize education. 

A comprehensive and definite aim, worthy of su- 
preme authority throughout the realm of education, 
may be stated thus, — the child should develop so 
that he will respond efficiently to the essential de- 
mands of his social environment and of his own 
individuality. 

A strong will, under the guidance of the best 
ideals and reenforced by the resources of knowledge 
and right habit, is the citadel of such a character ; 
and character, in this sense, is the aim of education. 

It is not too much to say that our course of study 
is based fundamentally upon this aim ; and we are 
beginning to see more clearly that a good course of 
study by virtue of its strong ideals and involved 



20 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

educative activities is one of the chief formative 
influences in shaping character. 

The presence of this dominant aim in the course 
of study is discussed somewhat fully in the second 
volume, under the title " The Moral Aim in the 
Course of Study." 

Having given due influence to this controlling aim 
in shaping the course of study, the great problem 
that immediately follows is to find a simple organi- 
zation of all the studies in harmony with this aim. 
This will be discussed in the following chapter, under 
the title " Simplification and Organization of the 
School Course." 

The necessary modifications of the school machin- 
ery to adapt it to this modern curriculum are dis- 
cussed also in the second volume. 

The several problems of the selection and arrange- 
ment of the materials of knowledge in the particular 
studies under leading aims have been fully treated 
in the different volumes of Special Method. The 
course of study itself can give only the results as 
tabulated. 



SIMPLIFICATION AND ORGANIZATION 
OF THE SCHOOL COURSE 

While the tendency to multiply studies and heap 
up facts in each branch has gone rapidly forward 
and has resulted in a crowded and congested school 
course, the principles have gradually come into view 
upon which a great simplification and a close organ- 
ization of school studies may be worked out. 

There are distinct approaches to the solution of 
this problem. 

First, a strong effort is now made to eliminate use- 
less and obsolete material from our studies. Under 
the pressure of a growing thoughtfulness among 
teachers, arithmetic has lost about a third of its 
old-time standard topics. Many good schools do not 
teach arithmetic at all in the first grade, and many ob- 
solete topics and over-difficult problems once common 
in grammar grades have disappeared. Grammar has 
moved upward through the grades and threatens now 
to disappear out of the grammar school into the high 
school. Spelling and writing, to the chagrin of many 
good schoolmasters, do not receive the amount of 
independent attention they once did and have dis- 
tinctly lost rank among studies. Incidental to con- 

21 



22 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

trolling studies they are taught as well probably as 
they were before. 

Much of the independent language work once com- 
mon has given place to language lessons bearing 
directly upon other important subjects of study, thus 
giving greater economy and efficiency to two studies 
at once. 

Many of the trivial, mechanical occupations (busy 
work) in manual construction and in natural sci- 
ence are being dropped. These marked tendencies 
show clearly that we are getting rid of superfluities, 
whether they be remnants of old studies or frills of 
the new ones. 

In the second place, we are making progress in 
actually reducing the number of studies by incorpo- 
rating or absorbing partly independent studies into 
the body of the more important branches. 

Physical geography, once independent in the eighth 
grade, has been brought under the domain of geog- 
raphy proper. It is clear that physical geography 
can perform its function much better as an ingredient 
of regular geographic topics than when set apart as 
a separate study. Various efforts have been made 
to elevate civics into an independent study in gram- 
mar grades, but we think that the chief ideas in 
civics can be better taught in regular history topics, 
where their genesis is explained, than in isolated 
studies of abstract constitutions (as a separate study). 

In a similar way elementary science, as the central 



SIMPLIFICATION AND ORGANIZATION 23 

Study, is absorbing into itself several groups of 
partly independent subjects, such as the lessons in 
health and hygiene, temperance and the use of 
alcoholic drinks, physiology and physical training, 
the theory of foods and cooking. 

Gradually the chief central studies have been com- 
ing into view, and the subordination of the less 
important ones to the central lines is apparent. 

Third. This effort to sift out the main things, 
the organizing centres of study, brings into view 
our chief problem, that of the simplification and 
organization of the school course. 

An examination of the leading topics in history, 
geography, literature (reading), elementary science, 
and mathematics will bring out the truth that they 
all spring from common sources or centres. In one 
sense, they are not distinct studies, but phases of 
great topics common to all studies. The Revolu- 
tionary War, for example, is a common centre 
from which history, literature, geography, drawing, 
language, and even mathematics draw important 
lessons. A great epoch in the life of a people 
contains within it all the elements of civilized life, 
and so reveals a phase of all studies. The feudal 
period in Europe has its historical side, its bio- 
graphical side, its religious side, its literary side, 
its scientific side, its art side. The life of Washing- 
ton is inevitably an important centre of thought 
for our school course. But Washington's life has 



24 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

distinct social, political, historical, geographical, lit- 
erary, industrial, and domestic phases. From the 
life of Washington are drawn important lessons for 
government, morals and manners, history, reading, 
literature, composition, and even writing and mathe- 
matics. 

Any large masterpiece of literature, such as " The 
Courtship of Miles Standish " or "Snow-Bound" or 
" Marmion," describes a social condition which in- 
volves many phases of life that should be distributed 
to various studies. The drift of our studies is more 
and more toward a few such common centres, the 
chief national and world epochs, a few masterpieces 
of literature which describe such epochs, a few lead- 
ing biographies, a few chief religious, political, or 
social ideas. These are common centres in which 
all studies have their roots and from which they 
derive their strength. The home or the family, for 
example, is the central idea of such poems as Whit- 
tier's " Snow-Bound," Burns's *' Cotter's Saturday 
Night," Longfellow's "The Children's Hour," Dick- 
ens's "Christmas Carol," Tennyson's "Enoch Arden," 
and of many other poems, biographies, and novels. 
Not only are the home and home neighborhood be- 
coming the starting-point for studies in literature, but 
also for local geography, history, arithmetic, and 
elementary science. The home garden, the sanita- 
tion and ventilation, health conditions, food and cloth- 
ing of children, are fundamental home lessons in 



SIMPLIFICATION AND ORGANIZATION 25 

science. The needs and economies of the home fur- 
nish many of the best topics in geography, arithme- 
tic, manual training. As the primary, fundamental 
institution of our society, the home is rapidly taking 
its place as the greatest centre from which all studies 
draw their lessons. 

The central institutions of society, the family, the 
religious institution, the local town or municipal cen- 
tre, the state and nation, the primary occupations, 
the chief typical epochs of national life, are rapidly 
taking on such importance as to become the centres 
from which all studies spring. Fortunately, these 
great ideas and institutions are relatively few. They 
are in marked contrast to the multiplicity, complexity, 
and almost chaotic miscellaneousness of our present 
course of study. 

It may be said, in order to simplify and centralize 
still more the idea of the school, that all its studies 
are focussed upon our modern social life, that all its 
lessons are designed to illuminate home and commu- 
nity aims and to bring children into intelligent, prac- 
tical relation to them. But such a statement is so 
general that it fails to show how closely intertwined 
are the roots of the chief studies in the few main 
centres from which they all spring. 

It is worth while to discover that all studies reach 
back with living roots into common sources, into a 
few great social ideas and institutions. This is the 
basis for simplicity and for the possible close organi- 



26 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

zation of all the studies. We shall find that the lead- 
ing topics of the several studies are phases of these 
larger units which no single study can comprehend. 
Each study presents an important side of a number 
of these centres. The colonial history of New Eng- 
land, for example, has its religious and theologi- 
cal aspect, its social and family life, its commerce 
and industries, its geographic and climatic condi- 
tions, its governmental growth, its modes of travel, 
its architecture and dress, its literary materials, its 
stirring biographies, its schools and colleges, its 
simple tools and machines, its primitive uses and 
ideas of science. Every school study can draw 
materials from this colonial period and does draw 
them. It may be observed that these common 
sources of study are not the peculiar possession of 
any one study, but are practical life centres^ where 
all the ingredients are held together in a common 
solution, in a social ferment. If properly selected 
and arranged, they form the focal points in our 
educational course. 

Turning now to the individual studies, do we find 
a few large topics which are the organizing centres 
for each t Our present course of study fails to bring 
them clearly into prominence. Yet the necessity for 
simplification and organization is so great that we are 
beginning to throw out the chaff and even to select 
the more important topics as distinguished from the 
less important and from the multitude of details. It 



SIMPLIFICATION AND ORGANIZATION 2*] 

is in this direction that a satisfactory solution to our 
present school problem can be confidently sought. 

At present we have too many so-called important 
facts in geography, in history, in literature, in arith- 
metic, in science, and in language. We are like a 
child in the orchard who has filled his pockets and 
hands with apples. In trying to pick up more, he 
drops as many as he takes. We must adopt the prin- 
ciple of selection and even go a long way toward 
the example of the merchantman " who was seeking 
goodly pearls." 

An example will best illustrate this idea of selec- 
tion. Among important facts which a child in the 
eighth-grade history learns is this, that in the sum- 
mer of 1787, fifty-five men, representatives of the 
different colonies, met in Philadelphia, and after four 
months of debate and deliberation worked out the 
constitution of the United States and recommended 
it to the people. It was then submitted to the con- 
ventions or representative assemblies of the states, 
and when ratified by a sufficient number of states, 
became the fundamental law of the land. This is 
one of the half-dozen "important" facts which a 
child is required to learn and recite in a single 
lesson. Some teachers would deem this topic, how- 
ever, of sufficient importance to spend a whole day's 
lesson upon it. We will suggest a still ampler treat- 
ment of it. 

First, as to the causes which led up to the meeting 



28 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

of this congress. At the close of the Revolutionary 
War the states began to fall apart, to grow jealous 
of each other, to take advantage of one another in 
trade regulations and tariffs, and to foster a strong 
spirit of hostility to each other. Examples of this 
should be given as in the relations of New York with 
New Jersey, and between Connecticut and Pennsyl- 
vania, which came near to actual war and bloodshed. 
The same happened in the relations of Vermont with 
New York and New England. The Continental 
Congress did not have power to levy taxes so as to 
pay the debts of the war, and our credit in Europe 
was so low that there was little but contempt for the 
union of the states. George III was even hoping 
that some of the colonies would soon be coming back 
and begging to be taken under his protection. The 
danger of conflict between the states was so great 
and the financial troubles in the several states were 
so pressing that patriotic men had serious fears that 
the countr}/ was on the verge of ruin. It was this 
desperate condition of affairs that brought these 
leaders of the people together in search of a remedy. 
Second. It is worth while to study the character 
and previous history of a few of the leading men of 
this Congress and what ideas and experiences they 
had gathered which would qualify them for constitu- 
tion-making. It is very interesting, in fact, to examine 
into Madison's, Franklin's, Randolph's, Hamilton's, 
and Dickinson's careers to see what local ideas and 



SIMPLIFICATION AND ORGANIZATION 29 

convictions they held. For it was a great variety 
of conflicting and diverse ideas that the men of 
the convention stood for. 

Third. When we examine the provisions of the 
constitution, we may notice that they are drawn chiefly 
from the constitutions of the various colonies. The 
materials out of which these men built a constitution 
were those which had been wrought out by nearly 
two hundred years of struggle and conflict under 
hard conditions in the various colonies. 

The men of the constitutional convention were not 
primarily theorists. They had had experience of 
government in their local colonies which had made 
deep and lasting impression. Two hundred years of 
American history had collected the materials out 
of which wise men, not without serious discord, built 
a new central government. This constitution is the 
focussing in one instrument of all the powerful 
ideas which American history thus far had brought 
out. To study the making of it, therefore, is to get 
at the real meaning of all that earlier history and what 
it led to. It is a searching review from the stand- 
point of fundamental needs of all our earlier history. 

Fourth. The Congress had not been long in 
session before bitter and apparently irreconcilable 
differences arose. There were hard words and 
stormy debates, and some members went home in 
dudgeon. The conflict of opposing men and ideas 
was so fierce that it looked as if the assembly would 



30 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

break up and separate with nothing done. The 
smaller states would not yield to. the larger states 
in the matter of unequal representation according to 
population. In final desperation the compromise of 
equal representation in the senate and unequal in 
the house was suggested. It met with little favor 
at first. But the minds of the members being once 
turned toward compromise, they were led on gradu- 
ally to the great compromises of the constitution. 
The conflicts between the northern and southern 
states on the subject of commerce and trade regula- 
tions and of slavery were at length worked out. 

Fifth. When finally they had reached substantial 
agreement, though some of the members had gone 
home in disgust, it was apparent that the constitution 
as adopted was satisfactory to no one. Wise men, 
however, were willing to yield their personal views for 
the sake of securing a central government which 
would perhaps bring harmony and proper control 
to the whole country. 

Sixth. It will appear later that the compromises of 
the constitution were the seeds of the great conflicts, 
which in the more than a hundred years since have 
agitated the people. Our history since 1787 has been 
a series of strenuous conflicts and determined efforts 
to give proper interpretation to the constitution. 
On this basis political parties have been founded, 
wars have been waged, and presidents elected. At 
the time of the adoption of the constitution the real 



SIMPLIFICATION AND ORGANIZATION 3 1 

importance and significance of nearly every great 
man could be determined by his attitude toward the 
constitution. But the same may be said of nearly 
every great statesman since then, as Clay, Webster, 
Jackson, Jefferson Davis, Marshall, Lincoln, etc. 

We may summarize the argument by saying that 
the framing of the constitution was the focussing in 
one great instrument of the ideas and influences ol 
two hundred years of rugged American history, and 
on the other hand the chief issues of our later history 
can be traced back to this constitution as their start- 
ing-point. For one hundred and seventeen years the 
American people have been living in the house which 
the wise men of 1787 built, and it seems probable 
that countless millions will find in the coming years, 
or centuries, their home under its roof. We elect 
congresses and presidents and frame the constitutions 
of new states in the manner which these men of '8y 
dictated to their descendants. 

In other words, judged from the standpoint of far- 
reaching importance, this meeting of the constitutional 
congress in 1787 with its work is an event of over- 
whelming importance. Compared with this event 
other great events dwindle almost into nothingness. 

To work out these various points up to the time of 
the ratification of the constitution by the states and to 
illustrate each point by examples will require many 
lessons. 

Instead of spending one-sixth of one lesson upon 



32 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

this topic, we are inclined to say that with an eighth- 
grade class we can well afford to spend a month 
upon this single topic (up to the adoption). Such is 
the place which its relative importance among events 
demands. 

This may serve as an example of what should be 
done in the direction of sifting out and emphasizing 
the really important topics in history, and in allowing 
a host of secondary facts to take a merely subordinate 
place in relation to them. In history and in geog- 
raphy we have accumulated such a quantity of so- 
called important facts that it takes all a student's 
time merely to memorize the important items, hav- 
ing no time left for a proper illumination of essential 
topics or for estimating the relative importance of 
the facts. 

What is true of history in this respect is equally 
true of geography, science, and literature, and to a 
considerable extent of other studies. Just as the 
Japanese and Russians are now contending for the 
possession of one or two commanding positions so 
as to control large areas from them as centres, so the 
student can afford thoroughly to invest the strong- 
holds of his subject, lay siege to them, take full pos- 
session, and thus dominate wide areas of knowledge. 
Enough has been done in this way to show its com- 
plete feasibility in the great knowledge subjects, 
such as science, geography, literature, and history. 
The masterpieces of literature are standing illustra- 



SIMPLIFICATION AND ORGANIZATION 33 

tions of the organization of many-sided materials 
around central ideas. Whether it be an epic of 
Milton, a poem of Browning, or a novel by Scott, it is 
organized around a central idea to which it is the 
genius of a great writer to give complete illumination. 
Lowell's " Vision of Sir Launfal " is the setting for a 
single transcendent thought. The master-thinkers 
have fully understood the organizing power of a 
single idea, and have not hesitated to squander 
their whole wealth of imagery in clothing such a 
thought. Our school studies have become encyclo- 
paedias, instead of magazines of vitalized thought. 
We try to satisfy children with abstracts, epitomes, 
dictionaries, rather than with stories, poems, ballads, 
biographies, novels, life histories, and epoch-making 
events or ideas. This mistake is a profoundly vicious 
one in education. The poems of Homer were the 
text-book of Greek children, leading up to that age 
of Greek culture which has been the marvel of later 
ages. The Hebrew boys and girls were brought up 
upon the Bible stories and poems. American chil- 
dren are not likely to be properly nourished upon 
the dry husks of epitomized text-books. 

What we need in all the knowledge subjects is the 
selection of a few centrally important topics for each 
year and to give them full, rich, and adequate treatment. 
This full, concrete setting is the soil in which an idea 
can take root and grow. An epitome or a dictionary 
furnishes an all too scanty soil for the growth of 

VOL. I — D 



34 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

ideas. Besides, there is a desert dryness about it 
which is unfavorable. Twenty large topics for a 
year's work in geography will answer the purpose, 
and likewise in history. A few strong poems, stories, 
and masterpieces each year, with a number of shorter 
ones sandwiched in, will serve all the purposes of 
good reading work. 

In our treatment of this subject of controlling 
centres in the " Special Method in Elementary 
Science" we pointed out five large centres, the 
home, the school, life groups in nature, the primary 
occupations, and the local city or town. In home 
geography, also, seven large topics were chosen. In 
history a few leading types were selected for each 
year. 

On the basis of the previous discussion, we may 
suggest three stages of this organization of subject- 
matter upon central topics in studies. First, those 
large institutions and ideas, or world epochs, in which 
all the studies of the school course are more or less 
f ocussed. Second, those large topics which constitute 
the main centres for each study. Third, the smaller 
type studies into which these topics easily fall. In 
most cases, the types form the large lesson units, 
each of which admits of a complete and rounded 
treatment. As the treatment of a type involves a 
whole movement of thought, it also forms the basis 
of method, e.g. Burgoyne's Campaign, New York 
City, The Maple Tree, 



SIMPLIFICATION AND ORGANIZATION 35 

The discussion of the type has been fully given 
in the ** Method of the Recitation," in the " Special 
Method in Geography," and in the " Special Method 
in Science." 

The purpose of our entire discussion so far is to 
show the possibility of securing a greatly simplified 
course of study, centring in a few important topics in 
each study, and enabling us to lay aside the heavy 
burden of encyclopaedic knowledge, i.e. of endless and 
burdensome details. 

It is necessary, of course, to arrange this series of 
leading topics in each study in a coherent and prop- 
erly developing sequence. 

There remains to be explained and illustrated a 
series of principles by which the execution of this 
plan of simplifying and organizing the studies upon 
leading topics can be worked out in detail. 

The correlation of studies is fundamentally pro- 
vided for in the original selection of a few great 
centres upon which all studies are focussed. The 
studies which are thus related to a common centre 
are but parts of a whole. They are merely phases of 
one object, different points of view from which the 
same object is studied. This implies first of all a 
close organization of studies. Each study is a review 
of many of the same facts presented in other studies, 
or a first view of those to be later presented in other 
branches. Such a natural plan of correlation depends, 
however, almost wholly upon the general selection 



36 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

and laying out of the course of study, that is, upon 
focussing of various studies in a year's work upon com- 
mon objects. Our present course of study was not 
laid out with regard for any natural plan of correla- 
tion. Each study goes its own way without much 
thought for the companionship with other studies. 
But there would be a great economy and saving of 
time if they would travel only the main highways 
and travel them together. In a language lesson, 
when a teacher must first hunt up some good topic 
and explain and present it to children before they can 
write upon it, she is wasting much and valuable time. 
The lessons in history, science, and geography have 
already worked up a number of such topics ; they are 
fully prepared for use ; they are instructive and inter- 
esting, and it would be a decided benefit to the better 
mastery of topics in these studies if they were worked 
over in a language lesson. There would be a posi- 
tive economy on both sides in having the language 
work in conjunction with the other studies instead of 
apart from them. A history lesson that requires the 
sketching of a map of the Ohio Valley or the coast 
of New England teaches in an interesting way a 
number of important geographical facts which 
otherwise might require a full geography lesson. 
If it happens that the history and geography of 
the Ohio or of New England fall in the same 
year, there is a decided economy and simplification 
of work. 



SIMPLIFICATION AND ORGANIZATION 37 

The Hudson River is an important topic in geog- 
raphy. It is equally important in the history of the 
French and Indian War, and in the Revolution. 
The stories of Rip Van Winkle, Sleepy Hollow, 
Dolph Heiliger, and others of Irving give the region 
of the Hudson an equally large place in the reading 
lessons. The physiography and geology of this 
valley are also of much interest to children. These 
various studies furnish excellent topics for language 
lessons and for drawing. The cities, bridges, ship- 
ping, water commerce, and railroads along the river 
valley need to be measured and estimated by the 
quantitative standards of arithmetic. All these are 
natural and essential phases of a larger complex unit 
of study. It can hardly be laughed out of court as a 
forced or artificial correlation. This topic cannot be 
understood without seeing it from these various points 
of view. Each study prepares the way for a quicker 
and better assimilation of this subject by those which 
follow. Each subject awakens an interest which 
strengthens the work of all the others. Each new 
study reviews and explains the same facts from a new 
standpoint. Taken as a whole, such a large subject 
treated from the standpoints of various branches 
acquires a certain commanding influence as an im- 
portant and interesting centre of thought If it is 
also typical, as in this case, it interprets scores of like 
valleys in other parts of the world. 

But, after all, just where lie the economy and the 



38 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

saving of time in treating large subjects in this way ? 
This also can be best seen in an example. 

Suppose now that instead of thus closely relating 
these lessons on the Hudson in the course of a year's 
work, we substitute for these the geography of the 
Hudson, the metric system in arithmetic, the story 
of Grant's campaign around Vicksburg, the reading 
of Arabian Nights, drawing lessons from geometrical 
forms, the physiography and geology of the Alps, 
and language lessons from Gulliver's Voyage to 
Lilliput 

The latter series of topics it would take, probably, 
twice as long to work out. The lessons would not 
mutually support one another so as to admit of rapid 
assimilation. Review of the same facts from new 
points of view would not take place, but frequent 
repetitions and bald reviews would be necessary to fix 
the isolated facts in mind. There would be a much 
wider scattering of thought over a larger area of un- 
related facts, but no strong centres of influence, no 
well-organized body of knowledge would result, either 
in the separate studies or in the whole group. The 
lack of connections, of binding relationships, is what 
makes such scattered knowledge so difficult to acquire 
and so hard to hold in mind. Comprehensive insight 
and interest depend upon discovering and understand- 
ing relations. But the relations upon which knowl- 
edge is best organized around centres of study are 
mainly lacking in such scattered and miscellaneous 



SIMPLIFICATION AND ORGANIZATION 39 

topics. The result, therefore, is a very large expen- 
diture of time and effort with a minimum result of 
real knowledge. It is a very wasteful and uneco- 
nomical mode of learning. 

But the full strength of the argument in favor of 
organizing the knowledge of many studies around 
common, important centres does not appear in this 
somewhat superficial illustration of the principle of 
correlation. We have noticed in a proper correlation 
of geography, history, literature, and language about 
larger topics that the history lesson incidentally and 
necessarily teaches many things in geography, litera- 
ture, and language, and the literature, vice versa, much 
in history, geography, etc. No topic in history can be 
taught well without such incidental inclusion of illu- 
minating facts drawn from other subjects. Correla- 
tion encourages and necessitates this sort of incidental 
teaching. Things thus taught are brought in because 
they are necessary to the right grasp of the subject. 
They have some causal connection or some intimate 
bearing on the main theme, which makes them essen- 
tial parts of the story. They often give richness, color, 
and concreteness to the treatment. The causal rela- 
tions between the facts of different studies are so 
close and strong that the reasons for facts in one 
study are often sought in another study. Now if the 
related topic in another branch is soon after taken 
up, we have a motive for studying it and a vantage- 
ground of actual knowledge. We are on an old 



40 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

camping-ground and know the trails. This is of 
primary value in attacking new fields. Such transi- 
tions are desirable in every stage of study. They 
greatly facilitate acquisition. 

But the principle of incidental teaching applies 
not only to related knowledge in different studies, 
but also to the right organization of knowledge in 
a single study. This is well illustrated by the ex- 
ample of the congress of 1787, previously outlined. 
Incidental to the treatment of this great topic 
there was a sifting out of the main ideas of two 
hundred years of history, an inquiry into the im- 
mediate causes leading to the assembling of the 
members, much light casually thrown upon the char- 
acter and ideas of the leading men engaged, and 
suggestion of results. All these and many other 
facts are mere incidents to a great central problem. 
A large topic in any study has just this organizing 
power, this coercive energy, by which it gathers up 
and focusses a large body of interesting knowledge. 
We might say that the great majority of facts in any 
study should be acquired incidentally, that is, tribu- 
tary to a few central, controUing ideas. The main 
facts are the officers and generals of the army, the 
great body of facts are the men who obey the leaders. 
One of the chief criticisms of our present course of 
study is that it consists of a large collection of inde- 
pendent important facts. No independent fact has 
any importance to a child's mind, nor can have. To 



SIMPLIFICATION AND ORGANIZATION 4! 

learn a great many of these facts and to call them 
important is also of no avail. To discover the impor- 
tance of a fact by tracing up the causes which led to 
it, and the results which sprang from it, and the 
quality and force of the idea it represents — this is 
the only way to get at meanings, to become intelli- 
gent. To surround and lay siege to the central 
strongholds of study, to bring to bear the forces of 
different studies Hke converging armies upon these 
main citadels of knowledge, this is a prime secret in 
any successful effort to lay out a simple but strong 
course of study. 

But in order to bring about this result we must 
reduce a great many facts that have been masquer- 
ading through our text-books as important to a far 
lower rank, and we must elevate a few of their 
nobler fellows to a much higher station. The regal 
facts and ideas must be brought out in their full 
strength, the plebeians must be reduced to their 
proper level There is no other way by which chil- 
dren can be brought to understand the simple and 
fundamental things of life. The vast armies of facts 
are merely the subjects and playthings of the few 
kingly ideas. We must learn to subordinate, to inci- 
dentalize, great hordes of facts in the studies and 
even to ignore them, to count them as nothing, un- 
less they contribute to the clearer grasp of a few 
essentials. There is no democratic equality among 
facts and ideas. They differ far more widely in 



42 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

importance than men do in their native birthright. 
The fact that they stand together in the text-book, 
on apparent equaUty, is very deceptive. If we will 
but focus the energies of children upon the few or- 
ganizing centres, the multitudes of facts will quickly 
marshal themselves into ranks and respond to call. 
All facts are at the command of him who knows 
where to put them when the need arises. 

The principle of incidental teaching applies also 
on a large scale to the group of language lessons, 
spelling, drawing, and writing as related to the group 
of geography, history, literature, and science. The 
formal studies, spelling, language, writing, and draw- 
ing, are constantly employed in the other studies as 
incidentally necessary. The content studies furnish 
the material of thought which the form studies need, 
while the form studies are an essential means of ex- 
pression for the content studies. To bring these 
studies into the closest mutual relation and support 
is a great economy. To keep them apart and to set 
up wholly independent courses for the two groups 
of studies is a duplication of work and a waste of 
energy which can have no defence. 

The economy of time and effort secured by a 
proper correlation of these studies is discussed and 
illustrated more fully in the " General Method," 
chapter on correlation, and in the " Special Method 
in History," chapter on the correlation of history 
with other studies. 



SIMPLIFICATION AND ORGANIZATION 43 

A marked economy of effort and time is achieved 
also in the treatment of types (which are important 
units of study). The comparisons which are regu- 
larly instituted when the type idea is extended to 
many other similar objects involve two great econo- 
mies in study : first the rapid extension of the type 
idea to a large group of similar cases, by which they 
are at once interpreted in their full meaning, and 
second the excellent review thus afforded of many 
important topics previously studied. This alone 
would eliminate a very large part of the present 
waste in our studies. The treatment of important 
types is destined to have a great place in school 
work. The type treatment moves rapidly to a broad 
and deep insight into a multitude of similar things. 
By comparison with earlier studies it also constantly 
works over the old knowledge from new and interest- 
ing points of view, and almost aboHshes the old 
routine review. From the early days of the Jesuits 
till now, strong schoolmasters have laid great stress 
upon thorough and oft repeated reviews. In spite 
of this, mere reviews and repetitions of things previ- 
ously learned are a bane to education. They are a 
cumbersome and extravagantly expensive mode of 
clinching ideas. They are a capital device for pro- 
ducing dulness ; that is, they are laborious, uninter- 
esting, and lacking in intellectual stimulus. An 
over-emphasis of sheer memory will not answer the 
purposes of modern education. Large units of study 



44 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

which are types and thoroughly worked out offer 
a constant opportunity to review, revise, and extend 
one's previous studies, and this is, in a very high 
degree, stimulating and educative. Heretofore the 
review idea has so dominated our courses of study 
and modes of teaching that it is hard to realize that 
it is a cumbersome and wasteful method of gaining 
and holding knowledge. But a review of old topics, 
unless it contains the elements of comparison with 
new topics and the weighing out of relative values, 
is not an appeal to intelligence. It is an over-em- 
phasis of the humdrum and the mechanical. 

Reviews by comparison strongly suggest the omis- 
sion of a large share of our present repetition drills, 
and the abolition of courses or study based upon such 
repetition drills. Our courses of study in geography, 
arithmetic, history, and grammar have been based 
largely upon the idea that children cannot clearly 
grasp the meaning of what they study but by succes- 
sive repetitions, by going over the same topics three 
or four times in the common school course, they will 
gradually arrive at clearness in the essentials. (Con- 
centric circle idea.) 

Such a course of study is equivalent to an acknowl- 
edgment that topics cannot be properly graded, but 
must be simply hammered at in a sort of blind rou- 
tine, until in some inexplicable way they work them- 
selves into consciousness. Reviews by comparison 
bring a far more intelligent and thought-producing 



SIMPLIFICATION AND ORGANIZATION 45 

kind of repetition. They keep a child perpetually 
on the alert to revise and clarify his previous acqui- 
sitions. In fact all his advance lessons should be 
learned in the light of his previous studies. This 
brings us to the final summing up of the whole argu- 
ment in the notion of the constant use and applica- 
Hon of knowledge. This is the true principle of 
thoroughness in study. We have given a chapter 
to this point in the " Method of the Recitation." 
** How should general notions be applied } " 

We will add here a discussion of the child's power 
to use or apply knowledge regarded as a standard 
with which to test the excellence of his work, that is 
as a measure of his proficiency in knowledge. We 
need to say but little of the thoroughness due to use 
or application. The power to apply knowledge is 
really a higher form of discipline to self-activity and 
self-reHance. It implies a certain degree of versatility 
and originality to fit knowledge to the new situations 
that are constantly springing up. The fixity of knowl- 
edge produced by reiteration and memory drill is a 
useless product compared with the alert thought and 
ingenuity needed in adjusting one's knowledge to 
novel situations. In truth the application of knowl- 
edge to ordinary uses is the severest test of real mas- 
tery that can be found. So true is this that we may 
better ask ourselves, Is not this test too difficult for 
children t Does not the use of knowledge now ac- 
quired belong to a more mature age, to later years ? 



46 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

In answer to this we need only to recall the versatile 
activity of children, the overplus of energy they ex- 
pend in doing things. They are preeminently doers, 
spontaneously fertile in modes of carrying ideas into 
execution. The imitative and motor impulses are so 
strong in children that it is hard to awaken their 
interest in anything of which they can make no 
use. The mastery of knowledge by the routine 
of memory drills, be the discipline never so rigor- 
ous, is far inferior in its training quality to the 
versatile use of knowledge in the ordinary forms of 
application. 

It would be worth much if we could establish a 
safe standard of proficiency, that is determine the 
degree of excellence which should properly charac- 
terize school-acquired knowledge. At present we can 
hardly say that there is any commonly recognized 
standard, but it depends upon the whim, opinion, or 
temperament of the teacher. 

At this juncture we are disposed to set up as a 
rational standard of thoroughness and proficiency in 
knowledge the ability to make application of it as the 
need arises. In writing, for example, a child should 
write so plainly and legibly that his work can be 
easily read. He should speak and use English so 
correctly that he may be well understood and appre- 
ciated on all occasions where he has need to speak 
and write. He should spell correctly what he has 
occasion to use. He should dwell chiefly upon the 



SIMPLIFICATION AND ORGANIZATION 4/ 

simple fundamental operations of arithmetic, because 
these he has frequent chance to employ. 

One of the chief advantages of this standard is the 
economy it brings in lopping off all those superfluous 
and showy excellences in which the schoolmaster some- 
times takes pride. The fine penmanship of younger 
children, gained at such expense of nerve and strain, 
the extraordinary speed and accuracy in arithmetical 
work which surprises adults, the perfectly executed 
maps and drawings, which exhibit such a waste of 
time, the swift reading and reciting which reveal that 
the children have memorized what was not intended 
for memorizing, the brisk spelling of all sorts of rare 
and freakish words without knowing the meanings, 
the empty recital of rules, phrases, and paragraphs in 
all sorts of lessons — all these hobbies of the school- 
master by which he deceives himself and others into 
the belief that he is getting first-class training can be 
pruned away, and we shall still have left the substan- 
tial part of the school work which serves the real 
purposes of life. Many of our best teachers push 
children on to these premature virtuosities, these 
striking exhibitions of mental keenness and power. 
The skill and dexterity attained are far in excess of 
the present needs of the children, and, like piano- 
playing or Greek, will pass out of the mind unless 
persistently kept up. The idea that the discipline 
gained will make up for all losses is one of those 
long-lived myths which is at last rapidly disappearing 



48 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

before a more rational view of education. A large 
portion of the time of children is now wasted by ex- 
cellent teachers in gaining a formal excellence in 
studies which is beyond the present needs of the chil- 
dren, and has no defence except on the basis of the 
exploded doctrine of formal discipline. 

Our standard of excellence measured by the power 
to use knowledge brings us a priceless economy in 
an overcrowded curriculum. It lops off a host of 
cherished superfluities. On the other hand there 
are several studies which will be lifted to a much 
higher proficiency by this standard of power in use. 
It involves the strengthening of our language work 
(the vernacular) from a feeble to a rigorous instru- 
ment of culture. The weak and unsatisfactory results 
of our present language work are universally acknowl- 
edged. But if we set up this standard of the correct 
and fitting use of English in all our studies where it 
is needed, if we are clear in our aims and steady and 
persistent in our use of the means at our disposal, 
we shall attain this most important result. More- 
over, in attaining it, we shall secure a higher form of 
mental training due to that ever present alertness and 
versatility which the use of choice and correct lan- 
guage in all studies demands. There is at present a 
curious contradiction in our general attitude toward 
the study of English. It is regarded as too easy a 
subject to supply the strength and rigor of a real 
disciplinary study. On the other hand it is so diffi- 



SIMPLIFICATION AND ORGANIZATION 49 

cult that we have not been able to get a correct and 
facile command of it by young people. This contra- 
diction suggests that we have no clear standard and 
no definite means of reaching one. Our standard of 
excellence, facility in the use of language as needed, 
when vigorously applied to our teaching of English, 
will give to the mother-tongue its natural and funda- 
mental importance and will make the correct and apt 
use of it a distinguishing mark of culture. 

It was stated above that the standard of excellence, 
based upon the power to apply knowledge, was in 
harmony with the needs of childhood because of 
their natural bent actively to execute ideas. This 
standard also adapts itself well to the immature and 
developing powers of children. If children can 
make a fairly good use of what they are learning as 
it accumulates, we should be richly content. More 
than this, adult standards of excellence, the effort to 
anticipate future needs, and to lay up stores of su- 
perior excellence against a coming evil day — all this 
ignores the present needs and capacities of children. 
It is an imposition by the teacher upon the child. It 
throws the educational machinery out of gear, and 
substitutes for a natural and gradual development, 
a forced and artificial strain after results, which, even 
if attained, involve injury to children, and no real 
profit. 

This standard may be judged also from the stand- 
point of the right formation of habits. The chief 

VOL, I — E 



50 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

advantage in having right habits is that they relieve 
the strain of voluntary effort and turn over to the 
machinery of the mind much which would otherwise 
be burdensome. It is generally admitted that where 
voluntary actions become involuntary (become habits), 
further perfection in these habits is uneducative. It 
is safe to develop habits up to the point of use, but 
beyond that the over-emphasis of formal habit is a 
misdirection of energy and also tends to give fixity 
to mental action before the period of growth is 
ended. 

This standard of measuring the quality of knowl- 
edge according to its necessity for use is a close 
adaptation to the immature and growing powers of 
children ; it shows the common temptation and dan- 
ger of premature and showy excellence, and of pro- 
ducing arrested development by attaining a rigid 
formal skill. 

Nor does the standard of a moderate and usable 
degree of excellence imply that careless habits are 
being formed. It should always be remembered that 
habits are formed gradually rather than by short 
spurts toward excellence, that the whole tendency 
of human development is gradual and slow, and in 
this lies the immense superiority of the human spe- 
cies over animals, whose instincts are completely 
formed and usable at birth, or develop very rapidly 
to their full perfection. 

We may summarize the main points as follows : — 



SIMPLIFICATION AND ORGANIZATION $1 

1. By centring lessons in several studies upon com- 
mon basal units, each study incidentally reviews and 
applies the others. 

2. The proper correlation of different studies re- 
quires that they be laid out along parallel lines so 
that each is constantly surveying the domain and the 
riches of the other. 

3. The types into which the larger units of any 
study fall organize the materials of a study and of 
related studies around controlling centres of thought, 
and bind the parts together by close causal connec- 
tions. 

4. The type study by the use of comparisons gives 
a wide-reaching extension and application of an idea 
into related fields, and greatly simplifies knowledge. 

5. The type studies are the basis of constant and 
systematic reviews by which old topics are brought 
into vivid relation to a new and expanding horizon 
of thought. 

6. The doctrine of apperception is simply a clarifi- 
cation and emphasis of this idea of the perpetual use 
and application of old knowledge and of new knowl- 
edge as fast as it is acquired. 

7. The final step of application^ which follows the 
inductive working out of a general truth, brings all 
knowledge into direct life relations, and calls for 
that rational self-activity and versatile power for 
meeting emergencies which are the final test and 
security for right education. 



52 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

8. The ability to make application of knowledge 
as the need arises is the best general standard for 
testing proficiency and thoroughness in knowledge. 

9. All these principles combined secure an organi- 
zation of knowledge upon a few essential centres, a 
reduction of waste, and a system of incidental re- 
views far more effective in the mastery and use of 
knowledge than our present superficial, scattering 
course of study with its elaborate system of formal 
reviews. Simplicity, economy, and efficiency may 
thus be brought into our school course. 

If these things can be accomplished, they will give 
us instead of our present congested curriculum, with 
its careless and slovenly work, a course of study 
which is simple and thorough and yet contains all 
that enrichment which modern studies and modern 
life demand. 



ORAL WORK IN LITERATURE 

In the first three grades, a series of choice stories 
should be treated orally by the teacher and regularly 
reproduced by the children. The lessons in this oral 
story work are given daily and run parallel to the 
regular exercises in learning to read. In the first 
grade these stories are selected mainly from standard 
folk-lore and fairy tale ; in the second grade Robin- 
son Crusoe, Hiawatha, and other longer stories are 
used ; and in the third grade, the best renderings of 
the Greek and Norse myths, and other legendary 
tales, are exploited. 

These stories (in the first three grades) are prima- 
rily valuable for their lively, worthy, and world-building 
thought material, so that they greatly aid in making 
the school a happy and homelike place. Secondly, 
they are the best possible contribution to good Eng- 
lish, while they open up the way to drawing and con- 
structive activities. 

FIRST GRADE 

FIRST TERM. FALL 

1. The Old Woman and Her Pig. 

2. Little Red Riding Hood. 

53 



54 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

3. The Anxious Leaf (Beecher). 

4. The Three Bears. 

5. The Lion and the Mouse (^sop). 

6. The Little Match Girl (Andersen). 

SECOND TERM. WINTER 

7. The Fir Tree (Andersen). 

8. The Four Musicians (Grimm). 

9. The Discontented Pine Tree. 

10. Cinderella. 

11. The Coal of Fire, the Bean, and the Straw 
(Grimm). 

THIRD TERM. SPRING 

12. The Bird with No Name (Grimm). 

13. The Proud Apple Branch (Andersen). 

14. The Ugly Duckling (Andersen). 

15. The Pea Blossom (Andersen). 

(a) These stories, as a whole, are simple, lively, 
and imaginative, and call out a strong, spontaneous 
activity of the children. 

(d) They deal with social relations and personal 
conduct, and also with interesting forms of plant and 
animal life. 

(c) The first story appears very fantastic and un- 
real to many people, but experience shows that it 
has peculiar attractiveness and interest to children. 
Its simple repetitions make it easy to grasp and 
reproduce. 



ORAL WORK IN LITERATURE 55 

Several of these stories are adapted to particular 
seasons, as The Anxious Leaf to the fall, The Little 
Match Girl and The Fir Tree to Christmas, and 
several others to the springtime. 

Other fairy tales and stories quite as good as these 
may be selected, and the following list of books is 
given for the benefit of those who wish to select 
others or to test more varied materials in a wide 
range of folk-lore. 

Quite a full discussion of the value of stories for 
oral work, of the method of teaching them with classes, 
and of the selection of suitable lists is given in the 
" Special Method in Primary Reading." 

Books of Materials for Teachers 

Grimm's Fairy Tales (Wiltse). Ginn & Co. 

German Fairy Tales (Grimm). Maynard, Merrill, 
& Co. 

Grimm's German Household Tales. Houghton, 
Mifflin, & Co. 

Grimm's Fairy Tales. The Macmillan Co. 

Classic Stories for the Little Ones. Public School 
PubHshing Co. 

Grimm's Fairy Tales. Educational Publishing Co. 

Andersen's Fairy Tales, two volumes. Part I and 
Part IL Ginn & Co. 

Danish Fairy Tales (Andersen). The Macmillan 
Co. 



$6 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

Fairy Tales and Fables. American Book Co. 

Fables and Folk Stories (Scudder). Houghton, 
Mifflin, & Co. 

Rhymes and Jingles (Dodge). Scribner's Sons. 

Fairy Stories for Children (Baldwin). American 
Book Co. 

Songs and Stories. University Publishing Co. 

Fairy Life. University Publishing Co. 

Six Nursery Classics (O'Shea). D. C. Heath & 
Co. 

A Book of Nursery Rhymes (Welch). D. C. Heath 
& Co. 

Verse and Prose for Beginners in Reading. 
Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 

Heart of Oak, No. I. D. C. Heath & Co. 

Heart of Oak, No. H. D. C. Heath Sl Co. 

The Eugene Field Book. Scribner's Sons. 

Scudder's Fables and Folk Stories. Houghton, 
Mifflin, & Co. 

iEsop's Fables (Stickney). Ginn & Co. 

Book of Legends (Scudder). Houghton, Mifflin, & 
Co. 

Stories for Children (Lane). The American Book 
Co. 

A Child's Garden of Verses (Stevenson). Scribner's 
Sons. 

yEsop's Fables. Educational Publishing Co. 

The Book of Nature Myths (Holbrook). Hough- 
ton, Mifflin, & Co. 



ORAL WORK IN LITERATURE 57 

What the Moon Saw (Andersen). 

Popular Tales (Edgeworth). George Rutledge & 
Son. 

Mother Goose (Denslow). McClure, PhilHps, & Co. 

Mother Goose. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 

Boston Collection of Kindergarten Stories. J. L. 
Hammett & Co. 

Trumpet and Drum (Eugene Field). Scribner's 
Sons. 

Treetops and Meadows. The Public School Pub- 
lishing Co., Bloomington, 111. 

Songs from the Nest (Emily Huntington Miller). 
Kindergarten Literature Co. 

A Book of Nursery Rhymes (Mother Goose). 
D. C. Heath & Co. 

Blue Fairy Book (Lang). Longmans, Green, & Co. 

Red Fairy Book (Lang). Longmans, Green, & Co. 

Yellow Fairy Book(Lang). Longmans, Green, & Co. 

Animal Story Book (Lang). Longmans, Green, & 
Co. 

True Story Book (Lang). Longmans, Green, & Co. 

Fairy Tales from the Far North. Armstrong. 

In Story Land (Harrison). Sigma Publishing Co. 

The Adventures of a Brownie (Craik). Harper 
Bros. 

Kindergarten Stories and Morning Talks (Wiltse). 
Ginn & Co. 

Talks for Kindergarten and. Primary Schools 
(Wiltse). Ginn & Co. 



58 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

Hall's How to Teach Reading. D. C. Heath & Co. 

Place of the Story in Early Education (Wiltse). 
Ginn & Co. 

Methods of Teaching Reading (Branson). D. C. 
Heath & Co. 

Lowell's Books and Libraries. Houghton, Mifflin, 
&Co. 

Books and Reading (Ruskin). In "Sesame and 
Lilies." 

Lectures to Kindergartners (Peabody). D. C. 
Heath & Co. 

The Study of Children and their School Training 
(Warner). The Macmillan Co. 

The Story Hour (Kate Douglas Wiggin). Hough- 
ton, Mifflin, & Co. 

The Moral Instruction of Children (Felix Adler). 
D. Appleton 8i Co. Chapter VI on Fairy Tales. 

The Teaching of English (Chubb). The Macmillan 
Co. Chapters I and IX. 

Children's Rights (Kate Douglas Wiggin). Hough- 
ton, Mifflin, & Co. 

The Story of Patsy (Wiggin). Houghton, Mifflin, 
& Co. 

Literature in Schools (Scudder). Houghton, Mifflin, 
& Co. Chapter on Nursery Classics. 



ORAL WORK IN LITERATURE 59 

SECOND GRADE 

Robinson Crusoe 

FIRST term. fall 

Chapters 1-9 in Robinson Crusoe for Boys and 
Girls. 

1. Robinson Crusoe at Home. 

2. The Voyage. 

3. The Island. 

4. Robinson's House. 

5. His Work. 

6. Surprises. (Wheat found growing in his yard, 
and a turtle found on the shore.) 

7. His Sickness. 

8. Exploring the Island. (He finds many grapes, 
melons, oranges, lemons, and cocoanuts.) 

9. Another Trip. (He finds a parrot and takes it 
home for a pet.) 

SECOND term. winter 

Chapters 10-20. 

10. Robinson's Garden. (He finds salt also.) 

II and 12. Robinson becomes a Cook. 

13. He becomes a Boatmaker. 

14. He becomes a Tailor. 

15. The Second Canoe. 

16. Robinson's Flocks. 



60 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

17. His Manner of Living. 

18. Alarm! 

19. Robinson prepares for Trouble. 

20. A Discovery. 

THIRD TERM* SPRING 

Chapters 21-29. 

21. Return of the Savages. 

22. Making Friday's Acquaintance. 

23. Robinson a Teacher. 

24. Preparation for a Journey. 

25. The Savages' Second Return. 

26. A Happy Meeting. 

27. Getting Ready for New Guests. 

28. An English Vessel Arrives. 

29. Home Again. 

Besides the Robinson Crusoe, or in the place of 
it, the Hiawatha legend with selections from Long- 
fellow's poem is often used in second grade. It is 
made the basis of oral and reproduction work the 
same as the Robinson Crusoe. It naturally becomes 
a centre for drawing and constructive exercises, mak- 
ing tents, Indian implements, and dress. 

The Story of Ab (Waterloo), published by Way, 
is used in some schools. Seven Little Sisters is also 
used in many schools in first and second grades. 

A simple edition of the Robinson Crusoe is pub- 
lished by The Public School Publishing Co., Bloom- 



ORAL WORK IN LITERATURE 6 1 

ington, Illinois. A complete edition of the original 
Robinson Crusoe is published by Houghton, Mifflin, 
& Co. Other editions are as follows : — 

Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. Ameri- 
can Book Co. 

Robinson Crusoe. Lee and Shepard. 

Robinson Crusoe for Youngest Readers. Educa- 
tional Publishing Co. 

Robinson Crusoe. University Publishing Co. 

Robinson Crusoe. The Macmillan Co. 

Defoe's Robinson (Hale). Ginn & Co. 

Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. Maynard, Merrill, & Co. 

Robinson Crusoe. Large Library Edition with 
Illustrations. Longmans, Green, & Co. 

A number of books have been written by prac- 
tical teachers on the use of Hiawatha in primary 
grades : — 

The Hiawatha Primer. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 

Hints on the Study of Hiawatha (Alice M. Kracko- 
witzer). A. Flanagan & Co. 

The best edition of the Hiawatha is Longfellow's 
Song of Hiawatha, well illustrated. Published by 
Houghton, Mifflin, & Co, 

Other editions are The Song of Hiawatha. The 
Educational Publishing Co. 

Longfellow's Hiawatha. The Macmillan Co. 

Song of Hiawatha. University Publishing Co. 



62 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

THIRD GRADE 

In this grade a variety of the best world stories 
may be used for oral lessons, including the Greek 
Myths and Homeric Stories, the Norse Myths, 
the Robin Hood Tales and Ballads, and the Bible 
Stories. 

Among the more successful stories for this pur- 
pose are those given in Hawthorne's Wonder 
Book and Tanglewood Tales and in Kingsley's 
Greek Heroes. 

The following stories have been much used : i. The 
Miraculous Pitcher. 2. The Paradise for Children. 
3. The Three Golden Apples. 4. The Golden 
Touch. 5. The Pygmies. 6. The Dragon's Teeth. 
7. Circe's Palace. 8. The Pomegranate Seed. 
9. The Golden Fleece. 10. The Chimaera. 

The Story of Siegfried is sometimes used in third 
grade. 

Instead of treating all these stories orally it may 
be better to give half the time to other stories, as 
those of Norse Mythology as given in the Heroes 
of Asgard or in Mabie's Norse Stories; or some of 
the Old Testament Stories, as of Abraham, Joseph, 
and David; or a few of the Robin Hood Stories 
given in Pyle's Some Merry Adventures of Robin 
Hood. 

It should be remembered that many of these stories 
will probably reappear in the later reading of the 



ORAL WORK IN LITERATURE 63 

children in fourth and fifth grades, and the chief 
purpose of the oral work is to introduce the children 
in a spirited and realistic manner to a few of the best 
stories in each important group. 

The method of oral treatment of these stories is 
discussed in the *' Special Method in Primary Read- 
ing," The Macmillan Co. 

The following list of books for the use of teachers 
includes the best materials in these different groups. 

BOOKS FOR THIRD YEAR OF SCHOOL 

The Wonder Book and Tanglewood Tales of 
Nathaniel Hawthorne. 

One should preserve as much as possible of the 
spirit and language of the author. Perhaps in classes 
with children the following stories will be equally 
attractive : The Paradise of Children and The Three 
Golden Apples, published by Houghton, Mifflin, & 
Co., The Macmillan Co. 

Kingsley's Greek Heroes. 

The Stories of Perseus, the Argonauts, and The- 
seus, especially adapted to children. It may be 
advisable for the teacher to abbreviate the stories, 
leaving out unimportant parts, but giving the best 
portions in the fullest detail. Published by Ginn & 
Co., The Macmillan Co. 

Story of the Iliad and Story of the Odyssey 
(Church). Simple and interesting narrative of the 
Homeric stories. The Macmillan Co. 



64 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

Adventures of Ulysses (Lamb). A small book 
from which the chief episodes of Ulysses' career can 
be obtained. Published by Ginn & Co. 

The Story of Siegfried (Baldwin). Published by 
Scribner's Sons. 

Out of the Northland (Baker). Some of the 
Northern Myths and the Story of Siegfried. The 
Macmillan Co. 

Peabody's Old Greek Folk Stories. Simple and 
well written. A supplement to the Wonder Book. 

Tales of Troy (De Garmo). D. C. Heath & Co. 
Simple and interesting. 

Stories of the Old World (Church). Stories of the 
Argo, of Thebes, of Troy, of Ulysses, and of ^neas. 
Published by Ginn & Co. 

Gods and Heroes (Francillon). A successful effort 
to cover the whole field of Greek mythology in the 
story form. Ginn & Co. 

Heroes of Asgard. Stories of Norse mythology; 
simple and attractive. The Macmillan Co. 

The Story of Ulysses (Agnes Spofford Cook). In 
language easily comprehended by children in the 
third and fourth grades. Public School PubHshing 
Co., Bloomington, 111. 

Old Norse Stories (Bradish). Stories for reference 
and sight-reading. American Book Co. 

Norse Stories (Mabie). An excellent rendering of 
the old stories. Dodd, Mead, & Co. 

Myths of Northern Lands (Guerber). American 
Book Co. 



ORAL WORK IN LITERATURE 65 

The Age of Fable (Bulfinch). Lee and Shepard. 

Readings in Folk-lore (Skinner). American Book 
Co. 

National Epics (Rabb). A. C. McClurg & Co. 

Classic Myths (Gayley). Ginn & Co. 

Bryant's Odyssey. Complete poetic translation. 
Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 

Bryant's Iliad. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 

Butcher and Lang's prose translation of the Odys- 
sey. The Macmillan Co. 

The Odyssey of Homer (Palmer). Houghton, Mif- 
flin, & Co. A prose translation. 

Myths and Myth-makers (Fiske). 

Moral Instruction of Children (Felix Adler). 
Chapter X. D. Appleton & Co. 

Special Method in Primary Reading (McMurry). 
The Macmillan Co. 

BOOKS FOR TEACHERS OF BIBLE LITERATURE 

The Modern Reader's Bible, twenty-one volumes 
(Richard Moulton). The Macmillan Co. 

Children's Series. Old Testament and New Testa- 
ment Stories. Two volumes. The Macmillan Co. 

Stories from the Bible (Church). The Macmillan 
Co. 

The Story of the Chosen People (Guerber). The 
American Book Co. 

The Literary Study of the Bible (Moulton). D. C. 
Heath & Co. 

VOL. I — F 



READING 



FIRST GRADE 



The first term of the first-grade reading (three 
months) is given chiefly to blackboard exercises in 
learning to read the simplest sentences. During the 
latter part of this term the primer may be used and 
perhaps other very simple books of rhymes, fables, 
and stories. 

FIRST TERM. FALL 

{d) The stories which the children have learned 
and reproduced in first grade, together with the 
nature topics, have often been made the basis of 
board-script exercises in learning to read. The ad- 
vantage of using these thought materials in the first 
reading exercises is that both the words and the 
thoughts are familiar and interesting to the children, 
and they enjoy learning to read stories which have 
attracted their interest. This is the opposite of the 
formal drill on charts and primers. The subject- 
matter in these exercises is derived from topics treated 
in Literature and Nature Study. 

{b) Reading, from a book, or printed page, of 

66 



READING 6"] 

poems, rhymes, and songs previously learned by the 
children at home or in school. 

ic) During this term and the following terms, be- 
ginning about the fifth or sixth week of school, the 
children spend a few minutes each day learning the 
sounds of letters, these sounds being derived by them 
from some of the words with which they have become 
familiar. Through their knowledge of these sounds 
they are enabled to make out words for themselves, 
and the second term they do some reading without 
previous acquaintance with the stories. 

During the second and third terms of the first year 
a standard primer or first reader is read through 
carefully. In addition to this one or two other first 
readers should be read more rapidly. Quick sight- 
reading of very simple stories should be practised. 

In the subjoined lists of books for the first three 
years of school a much larger number of books is 
given than can be used in any school. Out of this 
list for each grade two or three standard books should 
be selected and more carefully read. From the rest 
of the books others may be selected for sight-reading, 
and for such additional seat-work as may be needed. 
Good teachers, where possible, keep several sets of 
these reading books on hand for use in different ways 
and as the special needs of the class require. 



68 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 
FIRST GRADE BOOKS 

Cyr's Primer. Ginn & Co. 

Cyr's First Reader. Ginn & Co. 

Riverside Primer and First Reader. Houghton, 
Mifflin, & Co. 

Nature Stories for Young Readers (Plants). D. C. 
Heath & Co. 

Hiawatha Primer. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 

Stepping Stones to Literature, Book I. Silver, 
Burdett, & Co. 

Child Life Primer. The Macmillan Co. 

Taylor's First Reader. Werner School Book Co. 

Arnold's Primer. Silver, Burdett, & Co. 

The Thought Reader. Ginn & Co. 

Sunbonnet Babies. Rand, McNally, & Co. 

Graded Classics, No. L B. F. Johnson Publishing 
Co. 

Nature's By- Ways. Morse Publishing Co. 

Graded Literature, No. L Maynard, Merrill, 
& Co. 

First Reader (Hodskins). Ginn & Co. 

Baldwin's Primer (Kirk). American Book Co. 

Art Literature Primer and First Reader. 

A more extended list of books, including a peda- 
gogical series for teachers, is given in the " Special 
Method in Primary Reading." 



READING 69 

SECOND GRADE 

The reading exercises of the second grade in- 
clude a variety of materials besides the regular sec- 
ond readers, such as the books of fairy tales and 
fables, some of which have been handled orally in 
first grade, some nature stories and nature myths, 
choice collections of short poems and rhymes, and 
a few very simple classics in verse and prose. 

The list of books suggested for second grade shows 
the variety and richness of this material, and the chil- 
dren should be allowed to try their powers upon many 
of the simple books. 

SECOND GRADE BOOKS 

Nature Stories for Young Readers (continued). 
D. C. Heath & Co. 

Easy Steps for Little Feet. American Book Co. 

Verse and Prose for Beginners. Houghton, Mif- 
flin, & Co. 

Classic Stories for Little Ones. Public School 
Publishing Co., Bloomington, 111. 

Cyr's Second Reader. Ginn & Co. 

Stepping Stones to Literature, Book IL Silver, 
Burdett, & Co. 

Pets and Companions (Stickney). Ginn & Co. 

Child Life, Second Book. The Macmillan Co. 

Nature Myths and Stories for Little Ones (Cooke). 
A. Flanagan & Co. 



70 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

Around the World, Book I. The Morse Co. 

Fairy Tale and Fable (Thompson). The Morse 
Co. 

Graded Classics, No. II. B. F. Johnson Publish- , 
ing Co. 

Graded Literature, No. II. Maynard, Merrill, 
& Co. 

A Book of Nursery Rhymes (Welsh). D. C. 
Heath & Co. 

Book of Nature Myths (Holbrook). Houghton, 
Mifflin, & Co. 

Heart of Oak, No. II. D. C. Heath & Co. 

German Fairy Tales (Grimm). Maynard, Merrill, 
& Co. 

Fables and Folk-lore (Scudder). Houghton, Mif- 
flin, & Co. 

Baldwin's Second Reader. American Book Co. 

Choice Literature, Book II (Williams). Butler, 
Sheldon, & Co. 

Fairy Stories and Fables (Baldwin). American 
Book Co. 

Many of these books can be used in both second 
and third grades. 

THIRD GRADE 

One of the chief aims of the reading work is to 
introduce the pupils early to the best literary mate- 
rials. The readers recommended for third grade con- 
tain some classics, and the other books suggested 



READING 71 

supply a varied collection of superior stories and 
choice poems. 

It is fortunate that many of these products of 
lasting value are in a language form simple enough 
for children of this grade. 

The list of books is as follows : — 

Robinson Crusoe. PubUc School PubKshing Co. 

Golden Book of Choice Reading. American Book 
Co. 

iEsop's Fables (Stickney). Ginn & Co. 

Andersen's Fairy Tales, Part I. Ginn & Co. 

Seven Little Sisters. Ginn & Co. 

Heart of Oak, No. 11. D. C. Heath & Co. 

Child Life, Third Reader. The Macmillan Co. 

Grimm's German Household Tales. Houghton, 
Mifflin, & Co. 

Fables (published as leaflets). C. M. Parker, 
Taylorville, 111. 

Around the World, Book II. The Morse Co. 

Graded Classics, No. III. B. F. Johnson Publish- 
ing Co. 

Graded Literature, No. III. Maynard, Merrill, 
& Co. 

Grimm's Fairy Tales, Vols. I and II (Wiltse). Ginn 

& Co. 

Nature Myths and Stories for Little Ones (Cooke). 
A. Flanagan & Co. 

Fairy Tales in Prose and Verse (Rolfe). American 
Book Co. 



72 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

Arabian Nights. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 
Hans Andersen's Stories. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 
Book of Tales. American Book Co. 



FOURTH GRADE 

At the beginning of fourth grade, children are 
sufficient masters of the art of reading so that they 
may begin a course of readings in good English 
writers, in what are called the English Classics. 

This series of readings in the best authors continues 
throughout all the grades till the High School is 
reached. 

The selections used in fourth grade are complete 
stories and poems drawn from several sources, as 
the Greek and Norse myths, choice descriptions of 
plant and animal life, early history stories, shorter 
poems and ballads, and such famous narratives as 
are found in the Arabian Nights, the early Bible 
stories, and the legends of King Arthur. 

In each of the three terms of the year there should 
be a variety of readings, illustrated by the following : — 

Fall Term. Hawthorne's Wonder Book, The 
Story of Ulysses (Cook), Old Testament Stories in 
Scripture Language. These three books should be 
read with care in regular lessons. 

For sight-reading without preparation read stories 
of American Life and Adventure, and Kingsley's 
Greek Heroes. 



READING • 73 

For select poems to be read or memorized, use 
Round the Year in Myth and Song (Holbrook) or 
Nature in Verse (Lovejoy). 

Winter Term. For careful reading take Stories 
from the Arabian Nights, Norse Stories (Mabie), and 
The Ways of Wood Folk (Long). 

For sight-reading use Fanciful Tales (Stockton) or 
King Arthur and his Court (Greene). 

Poems to be used : Children's Treasury of English 
Song, or one of the books of poems suggested for 
the fall term. 

Spring Term. For regular reading use the Niirn- 
berg Stove (Bimbi, De la Ramee); Kingsley's Greek 
Heroes ; Waste Not, Want Not ; Squirrels and Other 
Fur-Bearers (Burroughs). 

For sight-reading use Heroes of the Middle West 
(Catherwood), Black Beauty, and Stories of Our 
Country (Johonnot). 

Short poems for reading and memory work. 
Open Sesame, Vol. I. A Ballad Book. 

In addition to the regular reading exercise it is fitting 
on Friday afternoons or other special occasions that the 
teacher should read interesting poems and stories to 
the children. For such purpose use, for example. 
Old Stories of the East (Baldwin), The Dog of 
Flanders, Bird World (Stickney-Hoffman), and Whit- 
tier's Child Life. During their leisure time at school 
or at home children may be encouraged to read 
some of these books for themselves. 



74 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

In these various ways children in the fourth grade 
may experience the vahie of several groups of im- 
portant literary materials, and may feel a genuine 
and personal attachment for these favorite stories 
and authors. 

In a few cases the lives of the authors themselves 
will be attractive to the children if presented by the 
teacher, as Carroll, Burroughs, Whittier, Stockton, 
Hawthorne, Kingsley. Short biographies of these 
authors are often found in the school editions of the 
classics, as in the Riverside Series, in the Pocket 
Classics Series, and in others. 

In many schools regular readers are used instead 
of the editions of classics. In this case there should 
be three or four sets of readers for each class, part 
for use as regular readers, and part for sight-reading. 
The follovvring list of books for use in fourth grade is 
divided into two groups : — 

1. Those to be used as regular reading work. 

2. Those of a similar character to be used as 
regular reading or as supplementary thereto. 

These two groups include a much larger list than 
is given on pages 72 and 73 or than can be used in 
one year, but it allows a choice among excellent ma- 
terials so as to suit the needs of any class or school. 



READING 75 

FOURTH GRADE 
I. BOOKS FOR REGULAR READING LESSONS 

Hawthorne's Wonder Book. Houghton, Mifflin, 
& Co. This has been very extensively used in fourth 
and fifth grades, and even in sixth. A book of 
standard excellence. 

Kingsley's Greek Heroes. Ginn & Co. Much used. 
Excellent. Covers much the same ground as the 
Wonder Book and is preferred by some to it. 

Stories from the Arabian Nights. Houghton, 
Mifflin, & Co. Excellent. It contains some of the 
most familiar stories, as Aladdin, in simple form. 

Whittier's Child Life in Poetry and Prose. Hough- 
ton, Mifflin, & Co. An excellent selection of poems 
and stories of child life by Whittier. It has many 
simple poems and stories, as Barefoot Boy, John 
Gilpin, etc. 

Fanciful Tales (Stockton). Scribner's Sons. Very 
pleasing and well- told stories for children. It has 
not been extensively used for reading as yet. 

Book of Tales. American Book Co. A good col- 
lection of old fairy tales, stories, and poems. It has 
been extensively used. 

Old Testament Stories in Scripture Language. 
Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. The patriarchal stories in 
familiar Bible language. It may be a little difficult 
for the first part of the year. 



'j6 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

Round the Year in Myth and Song (Holbrook). 
American Book Co. A fine collection of nature 
poems for occasional use throughout the year. 

Bird World (Stickney-Hoffman). Ginn Sz: Co. An 
interesting collection of bird stories and descriptions. 
Simple. A good book to encourage observation of 
birds. 

Nature in Verse (Lovejoy). Silver, Burdett, & Co. 
An excellent collection of poems of nature arranged 
according to the seasons. 

Book of Legends (Scudder). Houghton, Mifflin, 
& Co. 

Andersen's Fairy Tales. Ginn & Co. 

Hans Andersen's Tales. The Macmillan Co. 

Squirrels and Other Fur-Bearers (Burroughs). 
Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Very entertaining, but 
somewhat difficult in language. Use toward the end 
of the year, and in fifth grade. 

Peabody's Old Greek Folk Stories. Houghton, 
Mifflin, & Co. Simple and well written. It supple- 
ments the Wonder Book. 

King Arthur and his Court (Greene). Ginn & Co. 
A recent book. Simple in style and pleasing to chil- 
dren. A good introduction to poems for later study. 

2. SUPPLEMENTARY AND REFERENCE BOOKS 

Stories of Our Country (Johonnot). Appleton & 
Co. Good American stories for children to read at 
home or school. 



READING TJ 

Tales of Spenser. The Macmillan Co. Stories 
from the Faerie Queene. For reference. 

Bimbi (De la Ramee). Ginn & Co. The Niirn- 
berg Stove and other good stories. Good for home 
reading and for school work. 

The Niirnberg Stove. Maynard, Merrill, & Co. 

Gods and Heroes (Francillon). Ginn & Co. Suit- 
able to late fourth and fifth grades for collateral 
reading. Simple in style. 

Waste Not, Want Not (Edgeworth). Ginn & Co. 
Practical stories for children, illustrating foresight, 
economy, etc. 

A Ballad Book (Bates). Leach, Shewell, & San- 
born. A good collection of the older, simpler bal- 
lads. These ballads should be distributed through 
the year. Good for supplementary reading, also for 
drill in reading. 

The Story of Ulysses (Cook). Public School Pub- 
lishing Co. A simple rendering, sometimes used as a 
reader. 

Friends and Helpers (Eddy). Ginn & Co. Stories 
of animals and birds. Instructive. 

Tales from the Faerie Queene. The Macmillan Co. 

Stories of American Life and Adventure. (Eggle- 
ston). American Book Co. 

First Book of Birds (Miller). Houghton, Mifflin, & 
Co. Very simple and interesting descriptions and 
accounts of common birds. Will help to interest the 
children in nature. 



jS COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

The Little Lame Prince. Maynard, Merrill, & Co. 
A story for home reading. 

The Dog of Flanders. Maynard, Merrill, & Co. 
An excellent story for children to read at home or in 
school. 

Old Stories of the East (Baldwin). American 
Book Co. A pleasing treatment of the old Bible 
stories, not in Bible language. Well written. 

Fairy Tales in Prose and Verse (Rolfe). Harper 
Bros. A choice collection of stories and poems. 

Heroes of Asgard. The Macmillan Co. A good 
simple treatment of the Norse myths. Suitable for 
supplementary and sight-reading. 

Tales of Troy (De Garmo). Public School Pub- 
lishing Co. A simple narrative of the Trojan war. 
Supplementary. 

Our Feathered Friends (Grinnell). D. C. Heath & 
Co. Instructive book on birds. 

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Very suitable 
for home and family reading. Younger children 
enjoy it much. Entertaining. 

The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood (Pyle). 
Scribner's Sons. An expensive book (about three 
dollars). Excellent stories to read to children. Full 
of humor and adventure. Finely illustrated. A good 
book for school and home library. 

Open Sesame, Vol. I and Vol. H. Ginn & Co. 
A fine collection of the best poems of nature, hero- 
ism, Christmas time, etc. Ballads and stories. 



READING 79 

They are adapted to children in several grades, and 
should be used for reading, memory work, and for 
recitation. 

Stories of the Old World (Church). Ginn & Co. 
Good reading matter for fourth and fifth grades. 
Interesting for supplementary reading in fourth and 
fifth grades. 

Through the Looking Glass (Carroll). The Mac- 
millan Co. 

Children's Treasury of English Song. The Mac- 
millan Co. A collection of poems for occasional use. 

Little Lord Fauntleroy. Scribner's Sons. A 
famous story for home reading. A book for 
libraries. 

Heroes of the Middle West (Catherwood). Amer- 
ican Book Co. Stories for later fourth and fifth 
grades. A good book for supplementary reading. 

Old Norse Stories (Bradish). American Book Co. 
Stories for reference reading and sight-reading. 

Stories from Plato (Burt). Ginn & Co. Simple 
myths and stories for home reading. 

The Eugene Field Book. Scribner's Sons. Pleas- 
ing and entertaining for younger children. Prose 
and verse, humorous and pathetic. 

Stories from Old Germany (Pratt). Educational 
Publishing Co. A simple, interesting rendering of 
the Nibelungen Song and the story of Siegfried. 

Norse Stories (Mabie). Dodd, Mead, & Co. An 
excellent rendering of the Norse stories. Simple. 



80 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

Fifty Famous Stories Retold (Baldwin). American 
Book Co. Simple and well told. 

Pioneers of the Revolution. Public School Pub- 
lishing Co. A simple narrative of pioneer life and 
conflict in the Southwest during the Revolution. 

Secrets of the Woods (Long). Ginn & Co, 



LANGUAGE 

The language lessons of the first four grades are 
very closely related to the reading, story work, nature 
study, manual arts, writing, and spelling of the same 
grades. 

The oral work in stories and in nature study is 
the best possible means of inculcating correct con- 
versational English. At the very earliest available 
period they help to shape the language of the chil- 
dren into correct and appropriate forms. 

But many errors of speech have already crept in 
from the home and the playground, and the teacher, 
from the very start, should take up the battle in a quiet, 
inoffensive, but determined way against bad EngHsh. 

A few special exercises, as informal as possible, 
should show the beginnings of this systematic labor 
in behalf of a correct and pleasing English. 

The special language lessons emphasize correct 
usage in definite channels, but in every study and 
lesson the teacher must be alert to put in practice the 
teachings of the language lessons as outlined in the 
course of study. 

No outline, however, should be rigidly followed, but 
the lessons should be adapted to the needs of a given 
locality or class of children. 

VOL. I — G 8l 



82 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

Oral and written exercises are definitely outlined 
for each grade, and these can be adapted to the special 
needs of the class. 



FIRST GRADE 

1. Exercises preliminary to the formal language 
work. 

(a) Stories from good literature, presented orally 
and reproduced by the children ; e.g. such stories as 
The Three Bears, The Ugly Duckling, The Discon- 
tented Pine Tree. 

{b) Nature-study observations of plants and 
flowers, squirrels, butterflies, bumblebees. Work in 
the garden or excursions to the fields and woods. 
All these, after they have become familiar in nature 
study, may be used for short language lessons. 

2. Drawing pictures and writing words and short 
sentences to illustrate stories such as : The Old 
Woman and the Pig, Cinderella, Hiawatha, The 
Apple Tree Branch. 

3. Descriptions of good pictures by the children. 
A picture often suggests a story, or a scene in a 
story. By suggestion the teacher may get good re- 
sponses. In De Garmo's " Language Lessons," 
Book I, are many illustrations. 

4. Copying of words and very simple sentences 
chosen by the teacher from the reading or other 
lessons. Let the children's writing at the board be 



LANGUAGE 83 

large and free. Very simple sentences current in 
the other lessons may be dictated by the teacher. 

5. Exercises in the use of a and an with nouns : an 
apple, an orange, an eagle, a tree, a man, etc. (Not 
much time needed.) 

6. Use of common verbs to agree with singular 
and plural nouns as subjects ; as, is and are, was and 
were ; e.g. The four musicians were singing. Note 
also the correct use of there is and there are in 
sentences ; as, There are dangers by the way. In 
this kind of work very brief exercises are needed, but 
constant watchfulness to secure correct usage in all 
lessons. (See chapter of Illustrative Lessons in the 
"Special Method in Language.") 

7. The use of correct forms of personal pronouns 
as subjects and objects in sentences; e.g. Mary and 
I were playing. Philip and I sat together. Tell 
John and me the story. No reasons are assigned, 
but the correct form given and required till use is 
settled. (See chapter of Illustrative Lessons.) 

8. Correct and avoid the use of aifit, have got, and 
had ought. In correcting, use the proper forms and keep 
them before the children ; e.g. The fir tree isn't large. 
You ought not to go. Ought they not to speak quietly } 

9. Teach the proper use and spelling of the 
following homonyms : — 

hear — here hour — our know — no 

write — right son — sun there — their 

eye — I to — too — two be — bee 



84 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

Various devices may be used in drilling upon 
these words. Use cards with the words and call for 
meanings or sentences. (See chapter of Illustrative 
Lessons in " Special Method in Language.") 

10. A bbreviations. 

Use Mr., Mrs., Dr., and St. Write on the board 
short phrases and sentences with these abbreviations ; 
as, Mr. and Mrs. Ball. 

11. Use of the period in sentences and abbrevia- 
tions ; also the question mark, the possessive form 
with apostrophe, and capitals. 

Notice frequently the use of these marks in the 
book and in board work as a preparation for use. 

12. Spelling. 

Have frequent exercises in the written spelling 
of words occurring in the reading, nature study, and 
other lessons. Select at iirst the most common 
words. For seat work copy such lists. 

13. Writing. 

(a) Observation of teacher's written work at the 
board and frequent exercises in this free-hand board 
work largely in imitation of the teacher. 

(Ji) Copying of words and sentences placed on the 
board by the teacher. 

(c) Copying short exercises from the iirst reader. 

{d) Copying memorized selections and short pas- 
sages from memory. 

Apply spelling and punctuation to all these written 
exercises. 



LANGUAGE 85 

While these are called formal language lessons, 
they should be as informal as may be. 

Children should be encouraged to freedom and 
confidence in speaking and writing. The necessary 
corrections and drills should be kept within the chan- 
nels of spontaneous activity. As Mr. O. T. Bright 
says : " Children in the first grade cannot study. 
They want something to do." The blackboard and 
the seat work should be the outlet for this natural 
impulse. 

SECOND GRADE 

1. Use of this and that^ these and those ; as, this 
kind of apples, that sort of men ; these kinds of cloth, 
those sorts of people. 

Correct and avoid such expressions as, these kind, 
those sort, them kind, and them boys. 

2. Correct Use of Adverbs. 

Slowly, quickly, well ; e.g. He is working slowly. 
John acts quickly. The boys are writing well. 

Show the proper use of corresponding adjectives : 
slow work, good writing, quick action. 

Correct such expressions as, He is running slow. 
Mary wrote good. John speaks rapid. 

3. The use of correct forms of pronouns after is 
and was ; also after verbs and prepositions; e.g. It 
is /. The candy is for Mary and 'ine. It was she 
that rode past. It was they who laughed. It is we 
that are to blame. 



86 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

Correct such errors as the following : He told John 
and I to return. It was Mary and me. It was you 
who was talking. 

4. Practise upon the following homonyms : — 



meat — meet 


aunt — ant 


ate — eight 


buy — by 


flower — flour 


grate — great 


knew — new 


sea — see 


sent — cent 


steal — steel 


tail — tale 





Bring into these exercises any other homonyms 
that appear in the regular studies of the grade. 

Notice the widely different meanings and make 
simple sentences showing their proper use ; as, The 
grate was broken. Great trouble came to him. 

5. Use of Comparatives and Superlatives in adjec- 
tives ; as, taller and tallest. I have the larger book 
(of the two). Edith is the tallest girl in school. 
Avoid the use of the superlative in comparison of 
two persons or things. 

6. Correct use of 

Learn and teach ; as. Teach me the lesson. 

Don't and doesnt ; as, John doesn't know his 
lesson. 

Off and of ; as, Clear off the top of the table. 

Shall and will in simple cases ; as. Shall I come } 
not. Will I come } 

Avoid also the wrong use of can ; as, Can I do it ? 
Can we play with the dolls } 



LANGUAGE 8;7 

7. A bbreviations. 

Review those of first grade and add the following : 
ct., doz., abbreviations of names of days of the week 
and months of the year. Apply these abbreviations 
to other studies and add to the list others used in any 
school work of this grade. 

8. Use of Capital Letters. 

In beginning sentences and in proper names. 

The first word in lines of poetry and in direct 
quotations. 

In dates, days of the week, months, and in ad- 
dresses and titles. 

Let each child learn to write his own name and 
address. 

In all the written work of the school apply the 
correct usage of capitals and abbreviations. 

9. Copy carefully memorized verses and proverbs 
with attention to capitals, punctuation, and spelling. 

10. Use of Qiwtatio7t Marks. 

Give examples of quotations and their markings, 
using familiar passages in literature, poems, etc. 

Use of the comma in series and in addresses. 

Notice in the readers used the different marks of 
punctuation ; as, question mark, period, comma, and 
quotation marks. 

Apply these to written work at board and on 
paper. 

11. Make a study of the following irregular 
verbs : — 



88 



COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 



break 


broke 


broken 


begin 


began 


begun 


come 


came 


come 


drink 


drank 


drunk or drunken 


do 


did 


done 


sing 


sang, sung 


sung 


eat 


ate 


eaten 


go 


went 


gone 


see 


saw 


seen 


sit 


sat 


sat 


tear 


tore 


torn 


teach 


taught 


taught 


write 


wrote 


written 


speak 


spoke 


spoken 


lie 


lay 


lain 



The above are given as some of the most com- 
mon and involve many of the more frequent errors. 

In practising the correct use of irregular verbs we 
may aim directly at these errors. 

One of the most common faults is in confus- 
ing and interchanging the past tense and past 
participle. 

Interesting and lively exercises may be devised for 
illustrating the uses of such verbs. First ask the 
question. What did you drink } I drank a glass of 
water. What have you done with the milk ? I 
have drunk it. 

Devise various questions for bringing out the dif- 



LANGUAGE 89 

ferent forms ; thus : Use have or had with the 
verb break. Use the word break with yesterday or 
to-mon^ow. (See chapter of Illustrative Lessons in 
the " Special Method in Language.") 

12. Written Language. 

Parts of the Robinson Crusoe or Hiawatha stories 
or nature-study lessons furnish good thought material 
for sentence work at the board. 

New and difficult words from any of the lessons 
may be placed on the board and made the basis of 
written sentence work. 

In written language work there are many devices 
for reviewing previous lessons. 

{a) Sentences are asked for containing irregular 
verbs or pronouns, adjectives and adverbs. 

(^) Such sentences as the following may be 
changed throughout to the plural form: The boy 
that is riding his wheel has lost his way. 

{c) Sentences with blanks are to be filled out and 

copied ; as, The boy is than his sister and 

than his brother. 

id) Short stories may be written from memory 
after a series of sentences containing the story has 
been placed on the board, examined, and erased. 

{e) Dictation exercises given by the teacher may 
test many forms of words, punctuation, spelling, and 
abbreviations. 

In all the work of second grade the sentences used 
should be short and simple, the exercises brief and 



90 



COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 



varied. Let the children use the crayon or pencil 
freely with a large movement. 





THIRD 


GRADE 




rregular 


Verbs. 






choose 


chose 




chosen 


fly 


flew 




flown 


freeze 


froze 




frozen 


give 


gave 




given 


get 


got 




gotten or got 


ride 


rode 




ridden 


rise 


rose 




risen 


ring 


rang, 


rung 


rung 


steal 


stole 




stolen 


take 


took 




taken 


wear 


wore 




worn 


throw 


threw 




thrown 


burst 


burst 


(bursted) 


burst (bursted) 


dig 


dug (digged) 


dug (digged) 


sing 


sang, 


sung 


sung 


stay 


staid. 


stayed 


staid, stayed 


win 


won 




won 



Make sentences to illustrate the different forms. 
Use these verbs also with adverbs. 

2. Illustrate the use of the apostrophe with the 
possessive singular and plural ; e.g. boys' hats. 
Examine the readers for examples of the use of the 
apostrophe with possessives. 



LANGUAGE 9I 

Dictate written phrases and sentences in the use 
of the possessive ; as, John's knife, Mary's doll, 
Charles' books. 

3 . A bbreviations . 

Capt, Col, P.M., A.M., Rev., P.O., P.S., isn't, 
hasn't, don't, and other contractions. 

Use these abbreviations and contractions in sen- 
tences, and apply them to written work. 

Review the abbreviations of first and second grade. 

4. Writing Letters. 

Introduce the children to letter-writing to friends. 

Direct them to the preparation of letters to be sent 
by mail. Let them be short, but neat and accurate 
in punctuation, capitals, etc. / 

Work out a full letter at the board, selecting topics 
that interest children. 

5. Short Written Exercises (on the blackboard) 
drawn 

ia) from nature-study lessons and excursions ; 

(h) from home geography descriptions ; 

{c) from stories in literature; as, the Greek and 
Norse myths. 

Apply previous lessons on capitals, punctuation, 
and spelling. 

6. Study the following homonyms : — 

rode — road — rowed pair — pear — pare 

sail — sale pail — pale weak — week 

berry — bury whole — hole won — one 



92 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

hair — • hare bough — bow forth — fourth 

idle — idol heal — heel him — hymn 

A few of the drills in working with homonyms 
may be suggested as follows : — 

(a) Give out the words orally and call for sen- 
tences illustrating the different uses. 

(Jji) Pronounce the words and call for spelling and 
explanation of meanings. 

(<;) Write the words upon cards and let the children 
interpret them at sight. 

{d) Recall curious mistakes in the use of homo- 
nyms. 

7. Short Written Papers. 

First work out with the children a series of simple 
sentences from a familiar story or nature lesson. 
Place these sentences on the board and examine the 
spelling, capitals, and punctuation. 

In the first efforts of children such sentences may 
be copied from the board. Later they may be re- 
produced in substance from memory. 

8. Correct the following common errors in 
speech: — 

(a) The relative and interrogative pronouns who 
and whom ; as. Whom did you meet } instead 
of, Who did you meet ? Whom did you call 
for.? etc. 

{U) Each and every one^ either and neither. These 
words are often wrongly used with a plural verb ; as, 



LANGUAGE 



93 



Every one of the boys are present. Neither of those 
flowers are beautiful. 

{c) Review the use of may and can, shall and 
will. 

{d) Review the personal pronouns / and me, we 
and us, with verbs. 

9. The correct use of predicate adjectives instead 
of adverbs after seem, appear, smell, taste, and feel ; 
as, The apple tastes good (not well). I feel bad (not 
badly). The fruit smells sweet (not sweetly). 

In correcting all these common errors of speech 
it is advantageous to keep a list of the correct phrases 
and sentences on the blackboard before the eyes of 
the children for a period of time, with occasional 
drills or references to them for the sake of emphasis. 

10. Spelling. 

Make out lists of new or difficult words for spell- 
ing exercises taken from the stories, reading, nature 
study, and geography. 

{a) Such Hsts, placed on the board, may be used 
for pronunciation and copying till they are famiUar. 

{b) Pronounce such words for oral spelling. 

{c) Dictate such words singly or in sentences for 
written work. 

11. Write familiar poems from memory. Apply 
the previous lessons on punctuation. Before writ- 
ing study the punctuation, capitals, and spelling of 
such passages in the original. 

12. Simple Contractions. 



94 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

I'll, I'm, isn't, aren't, hasn't, can't, you'll, it's, I've, 
there's, and others. 

E.g. I'll go if it isn't too late. 

Give many illustrations till the forms are known. 

Dictate sentences for writing, involving these forms. 

Examine in dialogue and dramatic stories the fre- 
quent use of these abbreviated forms. 

FOURTH GRADE 

I. Composition, 

Careful work in simple composing can be under- 
taken in this grade. 

{a) The outlines previously made out in the oral 
treatment of history stories and geography topics, 
manual arts, and nature study supply a good basis for 
short compositions. Two or three topics of an outline 
may be worked out in distinct paragraphs with proper 
attention to margins, indentation, capitals, and punc- 
tuation. (See chapter of Illustrative Lessons in the 
*' Special Method in Language.") 

{b) Greater freedom in outlining and in composing 
can be allowed in writing descriptions of personal ex- 
periences of children upon excursions and picnics. 

After looking over such papers the teacher should 
use the blackboard freely in revising errors of sen- 
tence construction, choice of words, paragraphing, 
spelling, and markings. 

For further suggestions of method see chapter of 
Illustrative Lessons. 



LANGUAGE 95 

2. (a) The correct uses of wko^ which^ and that as 
relative pronouns. 

E.g. The lady whom we met is sick. The boy 
that (or who) was here is very bright. The sheep 
that (or which) was in the pasture is lost. 

(b) The proper use of in and into in sentences : 
e.g. Tom fell into the pond. The boat was in the 
water. 

{c) Illustrate the use of the possessive singular 
and plural of nouns ; as, The dog's ears, Charles' hat. 

3. Homonyjns. 

ball — bawl choir — quire gait — gate 

hall — haul peace — piece seen — scene 

false — faults flea — flee heard — herd 

oar — o'er — ore waist — waste 

Study the meanings of these words and illustrate 
their use in sentences. 

Give a series of lessons in the spelling and mean- 
ings of homonyms, including those studied in the 
earlier grades. 

4. Develop from numerous examples the chief 
rules for forming the plurals of nouns. 

{a) Cases in which s is added ; as, horse — horses ; 
cat — cats ; bonnet — bonnets. 

(b) Adding es ; as, box — boxes ; grass — grasses ; 
church — churches. 

(c) Changing f to v and adding es', as, leaf — 
leaves; half — halves. 



96 



COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 



y 



As a basis for deriving these rules make long lists 
of illustrations of each group from familiar words. 

In applying the rules, {a) dictate words and call 
for both forms ; {b) change all the words in a given 
sentence or paragraph to the corresponding singular 
or plural. 

5. Abbreviations as follows: etc., sec, min., hr., 
in., ft, qt, pt., gal., bbl., U.S., D.C., R.R., Dr., Amt. 

Add to this list the abbreviations that spring up 
in any of the studies and a review of those in 
previous grades. 

6. Avoid the following incorrect usages, like for 
as; e.g. He plays as Henry does. Without for 
unless ; e.g. Do not go unless your father permits 
(not, without your father permits). Good ways or 
long ways for long way ; e.g. George is a long way 
from home (not, long ways). Some for somewhat ; 
e.g. He is somewhat deaf (not, some deaf). 

7. Irregular Verbs. 



see 


saw 


seen 


come 


came 


come 


do 


did 


done 


go 


went 


gone 


take 


took 


taken 


sit 


sat 


sat 


set 


set 


set 


lay 


laid 


laid 


shake 


shook 


shaken 



LANGUAGE 97 

Review the uses of there is .and there are, there was 
and there were, 

8. Punctuation. 

Observe the use of various punctuation marks in 
the readers, arithmetics, and other books. 

Notice the uses of the exclamation point, quotation 
marks, the comma in series, addresses, and in setting 
off clauses and phrases. 

Apply these punctuation marks in written work. 

9. Contractions. 

O'clock, 'tis, it's, I've, ne'er, he's, shouldn't, 
couldn't, shan't, won't, wouldn't, can't, what's, 
that's. 

10. Introduction to the use of the Dictionary. 
Mastery of the alphabet in order. 

How to trace up words in the dictionary. 
The markings of vowels, diphthongs, and conso- 
nants in the dictionary. 
Syllabification and accent. 

The interpretation of definitions to fit the context. 
Systematic lessons are needed 
{a) in the correct pronunciation of vowel sounds. 
{U) on the diacritical markings in the dictionary. 
{c) upon well-selected words for dictionary study. 
See chapter of Illustrative Lessons. 

1 1 . Synonyms and antonyms ; e.g. large — big — 
great ; little — small — diminutive ; angry — vexed 
— indignant; liberty — slavery ^r bondage ; proud — 
humble ; strong — weak. 

VOL. I — H 



98 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

Frame sentences showing these similar and con- 
trasted meanings. 

12. Correction of common errors heard outside of 
the school ; e.g. ain't , seen for saw, done for did, you 
zvas ior you were, she don't for ske doesn't, as lives for 
as lief. 

Keep the correct forms before the eyes and in the 
hearing of pupils as much as possible. 

13. Spelling of new and difficult words gathered 
from the lessons in history, geography, reading, 
nature study, and arithmetic. 

Use the lists of words derived from these studies 
for dictionary work and for spelling. 

14. Make a free but informal use of the terms 
verb, noun, and names of other parts of speech in 
etymology ; also subject, predicate, and modifier with- 
out formal definition, as occasion naturally arises in 
all studies. 



MEMORY SELECTIONS 

In all times and countries it has been deemed wise 
to store in the minds of the children many of the 
short poems, ballads, proverbs, and choice extracts of 
the world's best thought. There are good reasons 
for continuing this old-time habit of memorizing 
select passages and perhaps for pursuing this plan in 
a more systematic way through all the grades. 

In the first place, the thoughts which are thus 
committed to the minds of children are beautiful 
and valuable, a rich treasure of enduring worth. 

Again, the children thoroughly enjoy the memoriz- 
ing and reciting of such pieces, and they greatly 
need guidance in the selection, for, when left to them- 
selves, they usually choose poor and trashy products. 

By an examination of the list of books which fol- 
lows, it will be seen that they contain an abundance 
of the most suitable selections for all the grades. 

In the natural order of the school programme there 
are regular occasions where such memory work is 
provided for, as in the opening exercises, special day 
programmes, Friday afternoon exercises, and on anni- 
versaries and closing days. There are some quota- 
tions suitable for whole schools in concert recital, 
others for classes or individuals. A Whittier or a 

99 



100 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

Longfellow day has often been made a delightful 
occasion for poems, stories, and biographical remi- 
niscence. 

In harmony with thfe plan of teaching good litera- 
ture in schools, only the best things should be memo- 
rized. Much memory work should be encouraged 
in the regular reading lessons, as well as on these 
special occasions for memory selections and recital. 

There is a wide scope to these materials, as they 
may range freely over the whole field of studies and 
of life. The choicest lyric poems from literature, pa- 
triotic songs, poems, and selections ; humorous anec- 
dotes, stories, and jokes; Mother Goose Rhymes; 
famous old fables, myths, and historical ballads ; na- 
ture poems and descriptions according to the seasons ; 
child life, at home and in play, as given by Eugene 
Field and Stevenson ; proverbs and wise sayings 
from the Bible, from Franklin's Poor Richard, from 
Bacon's essays ; hymns and songs for school use ; 
poems of family life and experience ; poems and 
stories of places and events (geography and history). 
It is easy to see that such varied selections may have 
a vital relation to nearly all the regular studies and 
events in school, and they tend to strengthen and unite 
the ideas derived from the other studies and school 
activities. 

The following list of books recommended to the 
use of teachers is divided into two groups for primary 
and intermediate grades. They are inexpensive books, 



MEMORY SELECTIONS lOl 

ranging in price in most cases from fifteen to seventy- 
five cents. Two or three of these books from each 
group would serve well for any school. There are 
a few books of special value to the teacher, as : — 

American Authors and their Birthdays (Roe), con- 
taining programmes and suggestions for the cele- 
bration of the birthdays of authors. Houghton, 
Mifflin, & Co. 

A Graded List of Poems and Stories (Gilbert and 
Harris). Silver, Burdett, & Co. This little book of 
forty pages contains a complete and well-selected list 
of choice poems and stories for each of the eight 
grades. They are designed partly for memory work 
and partly for oral narrative by the teacher. The 
poems and stories themselves are not given, but the 
authors and books are directly referred to in which 
the selections can be found. It will be very helpful 
to all teachers. 



102 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 



BOOKS FOR PRIMARY GRADES 

A Book of Nursery Rhymes (Mother Goose). 
D. C. Heath & Co. 

Verse and Prose for Beginners in Reading. Hough- 
ton, Mifflin, & Co. 

Mother Goose (Denslow). McClure, Phillips, & Co. 

Trumpet and Drum (Eugene Field). Scribner's 
Sons. 

A Child's Garden of Verses (R. L. Stevenson). 
Scribner's Sons. 

Treetops and Meadows (McMurry and Cook). 
The Public School Publishing Co., Bloomington, 
111. 

Songs from the Nest (Miller). Kindergarten Lit- 
erature Co. 

Fables and Rhymes for Beginners. Ginn & Co. 

Heart of Oak, No. I. D. C. Heath & Co. 

Little Folk Lyrics (Frank Dempster Sherman). 
Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Nature and Child Poems. 

Open Sesame, Vol. L Ginn & Co. 

Round the Year in Myth and Song (Holbrook). 
American Book Co. A superior collection of nature 
poems for use throughout the year. 

Love Songs of Childhood (Field). Scribner's Sons. 

The Eugene Field Book. Scribner's Sons. Pleas- 
ing and entertaining for younger children. 



MEMORY SELECTIONS IO3 

The Listening Child (Thacher). The Macmillan 
Co. Stories of English verse for youngest readers 
and hearers. 

The Children's Garland from the Best Poets (Pat- 
more). The Macmillan Co. Used also in inter- 
mediate grades. 



104 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 



BOOKS FOR INTERMEDIATE GliADES 

The Children's Garland from the Best Poets (Cov- 
entry Patmore), The Macmillan Co. 

Golden Treasury of Songs and Lyrics (Palgrave). 
First series. The Macmillan Co. 

Open Sesame, Parts I and II. Ginn & Co. 
Short selections in both prose and verse. 

Nature in Verse (Lovejoy). Silver, Burdett, & Co. 
Designed as a nature poetry reader for the lower 
grades. 

Selections from Whittier's Child Life in Poetry 
and Prose. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 

A Ballad Book (Bates). Sibley and Ducker. Bal- 
lads from Scotch and English folk-lore and history. 

Heroic Ballads (Montgomery). Ginn & Co. 
Scotch, English, and American ballads. 

A Book of Famous Verse (Repplier). Houghton, 
Mifflin, & Co. A very choice collection. 

Poetry for Children (Eliot). Houghton, Mifflin, 
& Co. A good collection for children. 

Nature Pictures by American Poets (Marble). The 
Macmillan Co. 

The School Poetry Book (J. H. Penniman). Phila- 
delphia. 

Choice English Lyrics (Baldwin). Silver, Burdett, 
& Co. A great variety of poems, ballads, lyrics, and 
sonnets. 



MEMORY SELECTIONS 105 



BOOKS FOR TEACHERS 

A Graded List of Poems and Stories (Gilbert and 
Harris). A list carefully selected and arranged for 
each of the eight grades. 

American Authors and Their Birthdays (Roe). 
Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Programmes and sugges- 
tions. 

A New Library of Poetry and Song (William Cul- 
len Bryant). Fords, Howard, and Hulbert. New 
York. A very large volume. 

History of American Literature (Higginson and 
Boynton). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. An interesting 
book for readers. 

Children's Stories of American Literature (Wright). 
Two small volumes. Scribner's Sons. Short Biog- 
raphies of American Writers. 

A Short History of England's Literature (Tappan). 
Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 



HISTORY 

The following " Course of Study in History " is 
designed for classes from the third through the eighth 
grade of the common school. If this course seems 
too elaborate for some schools, and needs to be 
improved by the omission of some topics, it may still 
serve as a substantial basis for the course as a whole. 

There are a number of problems to be solved in 
working out such a course of study. 

After the aim has been fixed and the general 
theory for the best selection of materials established, 
we must decide the relative importance of American 
and European history in the common school; the 
relation of the history to the reading lessons, litera- 
ture, and geography in the corresponding grades ; 
and finally the basis for the selection of leading 
topics for each year. 

This chapter will outline the course, not only in 
history, but also in the related historical and classical 
readings, and in geography, so as to show in a simple 
form the interrelations of history, reading, and geog- 
raphy. 

In this course of study American history is made 
the chief basis and backbone of history instruction 

io6 



HISTORY 107 

for each grade from the fourth year on. The reasons 
for this, previously discussed, are briefly summarized 
as follows : — 

1. American history, beginning with the simplest 
conditions of early exploration and settlement, ad- 
vances by regular steps in a process of growth to our 
present complex conditions of political and social and 
industrial life. In a relatively short period most of 
the important stages of national growth are well 
illustrated in our own history. 

2. The chief epochs and crises of our history are 
extremely instructive and interesting to children. 

3. The excellent biographies of the leading charac- 
ters of American history are of a superior quality, 
and have great educational value for children and 
youth. 

4. The best parts of European history of educative 
value for children can be placed side by side with the 
corresponding and appropriate parts of American 
history. 

5. A general chronological outline of the world's 
history is out of the question for the common school. 

A wholly wrong viewpoint for judging the course in 
history in the common school is furnished by a world- 
chronology and by the course of study in the classical 
gymnasium, which is often cited. 

6. History in our common school should begin 
with America and end with America, with such 
incorporation of European history as will give the 



I08 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

necessary breadth and variety of culture. The par- 
allel reading lessons based on European classics and 
history stories will supplement the history studies 
with those best parts of European culture which chil- 
dren are capable of appropriating. 

7. Our present course of study and the whole ten- 
dency of American schools show that American his- 
tory must be the chief staple of our history course. 
On the other hand, the increasing use of European 
classics and historical tales in our schools shows our 
appreciation for the best elements of European cul- 
ture. There is not the slightest disposition in this 
course to limit our history to a narrow Americanism. 

EUROPEAN HISTORY. ITS PLACE IN THE COMMON 
SCHOOL, AND ITS RELATION TO AMERICAN HISTORY 

I. The fairy tales, folk-lore, and mythologies of 
European countries are, in this course, not regarded 
as a part of the history proper, but as belonging 
rather to the oral work in literature of the first three 
years of school. These stories and myths constitute 
a very important part of the educative materials of 
primary grades, and are indispensable both in them- 
selves and as a preliminary to history. They are 
sufficiently important to be regarded as a distinct 
body of educative material. Their separate and 
growing importance in primary grades is shown in 
many ways. 



HISTORY 109 

2. A few important topics of European history 
are selected for full treatment in each grade from the 
fourth year on. They may precede or follow the 
American stories in the same grade. They are not 
mere supplements to American history, but important 
culture products for separate treatment. 

3. The selection of these topics is based, not upon 
chronology, but upon the quality of the story, its 
spirit and setting, and its fitness to educate children 
of the given age. European history offers the widest 
choice from the simple to the complex, from the 
worthless to the most valuable, from savagery and 
barbarism to the highest culture state reached by 
Athens, Paris, or London. It is an incomparable 
error to dump all this into a child's mind in chrono- 
logical order in the grades. 

4. Many biographies and events in European his- 
tory have a close kinship with similar topics in 
American history. These should be brought side by 
side in the same grade. If they breathe the same 
spirit, teach the same lesson under different condi- 
tions, they will double its educative effect. It is well 
to compare Columbus's explorations to the west with 
those of De Gama to the east. Champlain, La Salle, 
and George Rogers Clark were men of the same 
heroic temper and endurance as David and Corio- 
lanus and King Alfred. 

5. The real educative influence of European his- 
tory can be secured to children by such a careful 



no COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

selection of those episodes best adapted to their 
interest and understanding and to their social needs. 
6. American topics should be traced back to their 
sources in European history and European topics 
followed to their results in America. The books and 
maps by which this can be done are now much more 
available than formerly. 

SELECTION OF A FEW LEADING TOPICS 

In the course here offered a very few prominent 
standard topics of American history are selected for 
each grade. This plan excludes the heaping up of 
miscellaneous facts for memory work as well as the 
tedious chronological series for the early years. 

1. Each one of these topics should fit the age, 
understanding, and interest of children. Often the 
activities, games, drawings, and constructions incident 
to such history stories are the natural reactions of the 
children upon the material and show an important 
phase of its pedagogical fitness. 

2. Each topic should contain a vital core which 
gives it a real educative significance. It should 
plant in a child's mind a living germ capable of 
strong and beneficent growth. 

3. Such a topic may be a biography, an event, a 
campaign, an invention, or the growth of an idea. 

4. Each one of these topics should be worked out 
as a complete unit of thought, interesting in itself 



HISTORY III 

and in the associated facts, and provoking inquiry 
by a close succession of connected facts, giving a 
rational sense and movement. 

5. Biographical stories furnish a large number of 
such topics and constitute, especially in the early 
years of history study, the choicest and most educa- 
tive historical material. 

6. American history is probably the richest in 
choice biographical stories of that of any country in 
the world, and, as much of this material comes from 
the earlier simple stages of our pioneer life, it is 
especially appropriate to children. 

7. Such biographical and other topics are, of course, 
leading types and become centres for the organiza- 
tion of historical material. They simplify history by 
focussing it in a few leading characters, events, or 
ideas. Such important central topics also form 
an excellent basis for comparison and review, biogra- 
phy being compared with biography, event with 
event, etc., the children being led constantly to look 
backward over their previous studies for compari- 
sons. 

THE REENFORCEMENT OF HISTORY THROUGH CHOICE 
READINGS FROM AMERICAN AND EUROPEAN LITERA- 
TURE 

Great is the value of American and European lit- 
erature as a reenforcement to the history instruction. 



112 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

In the regular reading work of the schools, from the 
third grade upward, there is a large amount and 
variety of classic reading matter which is now used 
in the schools — poems, biographies, ballads, narra- 
tive history, novel, essay, and epic story, such as 
Marmion, The Courtship of Miles Standish, Horatius 
at the Bridge, Paul Revere's Ride, Scott's Tales of 
a Grandfather, Ivanhoe, Hawthorne's Grandfather's 
Chair, etc. In order to show the value of this lit- 
erary material used in reading lessons as a sup- 
plement to history, a list of the parallel classic 
reading now available, and much of it now in 
common use, is shown in each grade: (i) the 
American selections, and (2) the European selec- 
tions. 

In judging the importance of this connection be- 
tween history and reading the following considera- 
tions should be kept in mind : — 

1. Much of the best literature of America and 
Europe is historical in character and content, and, 
so far as it enters into the reading course, should be 
brought into the closest relation to the correspond- 
ing history topics. No forced correlation should be 
sought, but what is natural and rational. 

2. In selecting the best literary products, suited 
for reading lessons, without any thought of teaching 
history, we have been wont to choose many poems 
and stories which give a remarkably full and clear 
description of great historical events and persons. 



HISTORY 113 

3. Often a masterpiece of literature is, for chil- 
dren, a most suggestive treatment of a topic in 
history ; e.g. Southey's Battle of Blenheim, Holmes's 
Grandmother's Story of Bunker Hill, Plutarch's Alex- 
ander the Great, Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, etc. 

4. The course of study should take advantage of 
this very intimate relation between history and read- 
ing lessons, and thus cause the reading lessons to 
contribute greatly to the force and completeness of 
history study. History seldom takes the time for 
such an intense and realistic treatment of a history 
topic as is given, for example, in Marmion of the 
battle of Flodden Field and its attendant events. Lit- 
erature has thus a way of deepening and ingraining 
the lessons of history, which is beyond anything 
which history itself can do. 

5. A careful examination of this course of history 
as related to the reading will show that the history 
and reading lessons, to a considerable degree, are 
laid out on parallel lines. The simple reason for 
this is the fact that an event or story in history which 
thoroughly interests a child will interest him still 
more if put in a simple literary form which he 
can understand; e.g. Paul Revere's Ride, Barbara 
Frietchie, The Battle of Ivry, etc. In the nature 
of the case, when the history and reading touch 
the same or kindred topics, they should walk close 
together. 

6. Besides the English classics of a historical 

VOL, I — I 



1 14 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

character used in regular reading lessons ; the supple- 
mentary books in literature and history read by 
children at home or in the school library may still 
further broaden and deepen their historical knowl- 
edge. Fully half of the historical readings indicated 
in this course of study are of this supplementary 
character. Most children have plenty of time at 
home for this kind of reading, and the school should 
give it a wise direction and stimulus. The appended 
lists show how excellent and abundant are the books 
adapted to each grade of school. 

7. In most cases the masterpieces of literature of 
a historical character are handled in reading lessons 
a year or two later than the corresponding history 
topics in history. Several reasons may be assigned 
for this: (a) The difficulty of the language and 
literary form; e.g: Lady of the Lake, Evangeline, 
Webster's Speech on Bunker Hill, Plutarch's Lives, 
Franklin's Autobiography, and others. (d) The 
artistic quality in a fine piece of literature does 
not at first appeal to a child, {c) A masterpiece of 
literature has often a greater depth and maturity of 
thought regarding a historical event and requires 
.a more advanced age in the pupil, {d) The poem or 
drama often needs the foregoing history as a basis 
for its understanding. Such a poem is often a splen- 
did retrospect and vital summing up of earher his- 
torical studies; e.g: Lowell's Under the Old Elm, 
Webster's orations. It serves the student as a noble 



HISTORY 115 

review of earlier studies, and draws lessons not seen 
at first. 

On the other hand, many of the best poems and 
stories are so simple and graphic that they can be 
used as reading lessons in the same grade in which 
the corresponding history topics are treated; e.g. 
Courtship of Miles Standish, Paul Revere's Ride, 
Grandmother's Story of Bunker Hill, Hawthorne's 
Grandfather's Chair, and others. 

TfflRD GRADE 

HISTORY 

Christmas celebration : The Christmas story, with 
Christmas tree, pictures, etc. This is customary with 
all the primary grades. The story is narrated to 
younger children. Poems of Christmas time for reci- 
tation and song. These exercises do not partake so 
much of the character of instruction as of entertain- 
ment and joyful festivity. 

Thanksgiving celebration : History of early Thanks- 
giving days. Poems and stories. By means of pic- 
tures and stories something of early New England 
life is given. 

Washington celebration : Stories of Washington. 
A full treatment of the early life of Washington is 
not expected, but an acquaintance with the more in- 
teresting stories and surroundings of his childhood. 
Other national characters treated in a similar way. 



Il6 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

Local history of the town or neighborhood: The 
early settlers of the town and neighborhood. Stories 
of the most prominent pioneers ; where they came 
from. Early log-houses. Hardships. First school- 
houses. Early roads and modes of travel. Family 
history. Grandfather stories. 

The family and neighborhood traditions are the 
best beginnings of history, and an interest in them 
should be regularly cultivated both in the home and 
school. The grandfather stories give first notions of 
chronology. 

Indian life and relics : Stories of Indian life and 
adventure in the early settlement of the neighbor- 
hood and of the region of country adjacent. 

Different nationalities in the community and where 
they came from. 

The geography of the third grade is expected to 
deal with the hills, streams, valleys, products, and 
occupations of the village and adjacent country. 
Simple and primitive forms of industry are worked 
out. 

In literature the Greek and other myths are han- 
dled orally by the teacher and told again by the 
children. 



HISTORY Ii;- 

FOXJRTH GRADE 

HISTORY 

Discoveries and Explorers 

Pioneers of the home state and neighboring states. 
The movement is gradually from home outward. 
For example, New York State, as the home and start- 
ing-point, may begin with the following stories : — 

Henry Hudson : Trip up the Hudson. Other 
voyages. Meeting with the Indians. A map of the 
world is needed and a good board sketch of the 
Hudson, locating the places of special interest on 
the trip of the Half Moon. 

The earliest Dutch settlers : Trading with the 
Indians. The customs, buildings, and dress of the 
Dutch. Give some account of their previous home 
in Holland. A map and pictures are needed. 
Drawings may be made by the children. Construc- 
tions also of forts, palisades, Dutch houses, ovens, 
and windmills are to be encouraged. The activities 
of children in such efforts are easily set going, if 
materials are furnished. 

Champlain : Explorations. Expeditions against the 
Iroquois. First settlements along the St. Lawrence. 
First battle with the Indians on the shore of Lake 
Champlain. Locate France on the map, and trace 
the journey across the Atlantic. 

The Five Nations : Their homes and customs. 



Il8 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

Warlike character and expeditions. The map of 
central New York should be drawn and the war- 
like raids of these tribes into the neighboring regions 
indicated. 

La Salle : In Canada. At Niagara. On the 
Great Lakes. In Illinois and on the Lower Missis- 
sippi. His hardships, dangers, and resolution. 
Tonty and Hennepin in relation to La Salle. Miles 
Standish at Plymouth. The trials of the first few 
years. 

In laying out the fourth-year work for Massachu- 
setts schools the story of the first settlement of 
Plymouth and Boston would naturally come first, fol- 
lowed by other pioneer stories of New England, and 
the arrangement of the other stories of Hudson, etc., 
would be somewhat modified. In planning the course 
for Illinois schools, the stories of La Salle, Lincoln, 
and others of the Mississippi Valley, would occupy 
the first place, while the pioneer stories of more dis- 
tant states would follow later. 

Some schools may prefer to omit some of these 
stories or to substitute others in their place. 

Raleigh : Early life. His attempts at founding 
colonies. 

John Smith : Explorations. Experiences at James- 
town. 

Boone : Life in Kentucky. 

Washington : Early life up to Braddock's defeat. 

Lincoln : Early life to the age of twenty. 



HISTORY 119 

The American Pioneer History Stories, in three 
volumes, contain most of the above stories and others 
for use in the fourth and fifth grades. 

OTHER NATIONAL STORIES 

Abraham : The chief scenes of his hfe. 

Joseph : All the parts suitable for children. 

David : His early life to the death of Saul. 

These stories are well given in Bible Stories in 
Scripture Language. Use the map freely. Consult 
chapter on List of Books. 

Romulus : Founding of Rome. 

Coriolanus : In the main according to Plutarch. 

Cincinnatus : A short story from Plutarch. 

The Roman stories are well given in several of the 
supplementary story-books named in the lists. 

Julius Caesar : Conquests in Gaul and England. 

The Angles and Saxons : Their invasion of Eng- 
land. 

King Alfred : His war with the Danes and later 
labors for his people. 

All the above stories, both American and others, 
are designed for oral treatment. 

The English stories are given in the Story of the 
English, and in several other historical readers. It 
is better to give a few of these stories in full and in- 
teresting detail, with pictures, maps, and involving 
constructive efforts by the children, than to multiply 
short, scrappy stories. 



120 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

I^ITERATURE AND READING OF FOURTH GRADE. THE 
FOLLOWING BOOKS ARE MUCH USED IN THE REGU- 
LAR READING LESSONS 

Wonder Book and Tanglewood Tales (Hawthorne); 
Old Greek Folk Stories (Peabody) ; Greek Heroes 
(Kingsley). These books are excellent for regular 
school reading. Story of Ulysses and Tales of Troy, 
both prose and poetic translations and narrative 
stories. There are many renderings of the Greek 
myths and stories suited to school use. Book of 
Legends (Scudder). 

Complete translations of the Iliad and Odyssey, by 
Bryant, Palmer, and others, are now available for 
teachers and pupils for school and home use. 

Heroes of Asgard ; Norse Stories (Mabie); Stories 
from the Old German (Pratt); Old Norse Stories 
(Bradish) ; Siegfried (Burt). These stories of Norse 
and German myths have been used for regular read- 
ing exercises, or they may serve as supplementary 
reading matter in school and home. 

OTHER HISTORICAL AND LEGENDARY STORIES 

Used in regular, supplementary, and home reading: 
Old Testament Stories in Scripture Language — the 
essential parts of the Bible stories for school use ; 
Old Stories of the East (Baldwin) — a free rendering 
of the old Bible stories ; Boy's King Arthur (Lanier) ; 



HISTORY 121 

King Arthur and His Court (Frost); Stories of King 
Arthur's Round Table Knights ; Tales of Spenser, 
stories of the Faerie Queene; Ballad Book. There 
are several good ballad books giving the old English, 
Scotch, and other European ballads. They are im- 
portant products of the old folk-lore tradition and 
early history. 

All the above stories and other books of similar 
character may be used partly for regular reading 
exercises, but especially for supplementary reading, 
for special occasions when the teacher reads to the 
whole school, and for home use at the fireside. 

HISTORY. SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS 

American Life and Adventure (Eggleston); Stories 
of our Country (Johonnot), These books furnish sim- 
ple narratives of interesting scenes of American life. 
Four Great Americans; Pioneers of the Revolution, 
stories of Boone, Robertson, and others ; some of the 
American Pioneer History Stories. Most of these 
American History Stories are simple enough to be 
read by the children. 

MISCELLANEOUS 

Fifty Famous Stories Retold; Open Sesame, Vols. 
I and n — a collection of poems, ballads, etc.; The 
Arabian Nights — most famous of old stories ; Stories 
of the Old World (Church); The Nurnberg Stove 



122 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

and other stories; Child Life in Prose and Verse 
(Whittier). 

It is well for the children in the fourth grade to 
begin to read for themselves the simpler stories of 
America, and also kindred stories of adventure and 
heroism from other countries, especially from Euro- 
pean countries. The oral treatment of stories in this 
grade is the best possible introduction to the proper 
spirited appreciation of such narratives. 



GEOGRAPHY 

The geography of the fourth grade runs parallel 
with the history. The Pioneer History Stories require 
a clear grasp of the natural or physical geography of 
North America and the power of interpreting maps. 

The geography of this year should contain a good 
description of the interesting and striking physical 
and industrial features of North America, its chief 
mountains, forests, rivers, occupations, and zones of 
climate. Parallel with these geographical topics each 
pioneer story necessitates a special map to make clear 
the geographical conditions of the story. 

Many of the topics of home geography treated in 
fourth grade trace out the origin of important prod- 
ucts to various parts of North America and of the 
world, as tropical fruits, tea and coffee, cotton and 
silk goods, fine china and porcelain, etc. 

The advantage of this close paralleHsm of history 
and geography is found in the very great interest 
which good stories lend to localities, and in the 
mutual help which these studies render to each other 
in explaining and fixing better the facts of both 
geography and history. Each study reviews, reen- 
f orces, and intensifies the facts taught by the other. 

123 



124 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

The value of each study in its relation to life is also 
better seen. 

THIRD GRADE — HOME GEOGRAPHY 

SIMPLE, PRIMARY TYPES 

I. Building materials. 

Excursion to a house in process of construction. 

Outline. Foundation and floor plan. Draw plan. 
Work of excavation. Brick and stone masons. Base- 
ment windows, doors. Drainage, etc. The frame- 
work of the house; beams, joists, studding, rafters, 
siding, partitions. Plan of rooms. Heating, plumb- 
ing, gas-pipes, or wires for lighting. Water-supply. 
Connection with sewer. Door and window frames. 
Stairs. Floors. Plastering. Making of plaster; 
lime, sand, hair. Interior finish. Oak and hard 
woods. Varnishing. Chimneys, fireplaces. Plan of 
heating. Tinning, spouting, roofing. Painting, in- 
terior and exterior. Ingredients of paints. Tinting, 
decorating, papering, frescoing. Yard and lawn; 
walks, trees. 

Several excursions at different times in the process 
of constructing and completing a house are made. 
The observations made upon these trips are later 
fully discussed in the class room. 

The different kinds of trades and tools employed in 
the building are noticed, such as those of masons, car- 
penters, plumbers, painters, tinners, architect, plas- 



GEOGRAPHY 125 

terers, and decorators. The shops, quarries, and mills 
from which building materials are obtained, should 
be mentioned and located ; e.g. the carpenter shop, 
planing-mill, tin-shop, the stone quarry, the brick 
yard and kiln. The close dependence of all the 
different trades upon one another may be observed. 
The cost of materials and wages of men may be 
discussed to some extent. Frequent drawings on 
the blackboard to illustrate points discussed are 
helpful. 

2. Excursions to a garden and farm. 

Visits to a near garden in springtime to note the 
turning of the soil, planting, and growth of vegetables, 
such as corn, onions, lettuce, radishes, asparagus, po- 
tatoes, beets, tomatoes, cabbage, celer}^, etc. Two or 
three of these should be followed through the season. 
A school garden is the best means of following up 
this work, and gives the children a chance to partici- 
pate. The use of the hotbed for obtaining early 
cabbages and tomatoes is worth studying. The 
treatment and fertilizing of soils may be observed. 

In the fall, excursions to the garden to see the 
crops and their gathering in are instructive ; e.g. dig- 
ging potatoes and root crops, the picking and mar- 
keting of tomatoes, cabbages, and celery. The 
berries and small fruits are equally interesting. 

A visit to a nursery for fruit and shade trees, both 
in spring and fall, is very interesting, and in winter 
the budding and grafting may be observed. A visit 



126 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

to a typical farm to see the different fields of grain, 
pasture, and woodland, the kinds and care of stock, 
the barns and granaries, the machines and tools em- 
ployed, will be very instructive. In this connection a 
visit to an agricultural implement store is also helpful. 
Upon all these outdoor excursions there is oppor- 
tunity for incidental observation of the open country, 
fields, woods, streams, hills, soils, roads, bridges, and 
various occupations and industries. 

3. Clothing and industries related to clothing. 

Sheep-raising and wool. Cattle and hides. Tan- 
ning of skins. The spinning and weaving of cloth. 
Visit to a carpet-weaver's. Note machinery used. 
Cotton or woollen mill. The tailor shop. The dress- 
maker's. The milliner's. The clothing store. The 
dry-goods store. Variety of goods sold, as cotton 
cloth, linen, silk, lace, woollens, and straw. Shoe 
factory. (Excursion reserved for fourth grade.) 

In the third grade a study of raw materials of 
clothing and their production and treatment as illus- 
trated in the home district and in carpet-weaving are 
in place. The more complex processes of manufac- 
ture are too difficult. 

4. Excursions to shops and stores. 

Visit to a fruit store. Kinds of fruit, etc. The 
bakery and the baking oven. The blacksmith's shop 
and the wagon-maker's shop. The grist-mill. Mill- 
pond and mill-race. The wheel. The elevator and 
the loading and storage of grain. The grocery store. 



GEOGRAPHY I 2J 

Variety of products. Visit to the park or to the 
woods. These excursions are carefully planned and 
later fully discussed in the class. 

5. Incidental extension of the above topics into 
other states and to foreign lands. 

From the lumber-yard we pass to the northern 
pineries, also to the yellow-pine woods of the south- 
ern states. Oak and other hard woods are from the 
Ohio Valley. From the fruit store we may trace the 
orange to Florida and California, peaches to Michi- 
gan and New Jersey, apples to New York, Missouri, 
etc., grapes to California and New York, bananas to 
Jamaica. Codfish are referred to the fishing-banks, 
oysters to the Chesapeake and Long Island Sound, 
salmon to the Columbia River. 

The flour in the grocery store may be traced to 
Minneapolis and the wheat-fields of the Northwest. 
Salt comes from New York and Michigan, sugar 
from Louisiana, Hawaii, and Cuba. Meats are from 
the corn regions of the Middle West, from Kansas 
City, Chicago, etc. Fine building-stone is obtained 
from Indiana, Tennessee, Vermont, Massachusetts, 
etc. Coffee may be traced to Brazil, tea to China 
and Japan, fine chinas to France and Germany. 

Gold and silver are referred to the mines of Colo- 
rado and California, hard coal to Pennsylvania, coal-oil 
to Pennsylvania, Texas, and California. In locating 
the sources from which these products come it is 
hardly advisable to enter into any full treatment of 



128 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

the modes of production. This full descriptive treat- 
ment will be given in the following years. The loca- 
tion of such regions is easily and quickly made upon 
large wall maps or by blackboard sketches. It is 
merely incidental to the treatment of home topics. 

6. Local map-making. 

Beginning with the schoolhouse and grounds, make 
a simple map of the town and neighborhood with two 
or three streets and a few roads leading into the coun- 
try. The creek or river is included and the railroads 
to neighboring towns. Use sand maps also to express 
surface irregularities, and let the points of the compass 
be taught incidentally. After a little practice the 
maps can be drawn to a scale. 

7. Primitive peoples and occupations. 

America supplies three good types of primitive 
life, — the Eskimo of the North, their houses, hunting, 
and modes of life ; the Indians as described by Park- 
man, Starr, and other travellers ; and the Zuni Indians 
of the Southwest and of Mexico. 

The Seven Little Sisters and Each and All fur- 
nish simple descriptions of life in the chief regions 
of the world for third-grade children who are getting 
their first notions of distant peoples and countries. 
They can be read by the teacher, discussed, and as 
far as possible illustrated by pictures, cardboard, and 
other constructions. 

8. Study of the world-whole. 

The largest globes available should be used. 



GEOGRAPHY 1 29 

Children enjoy thinking of the earth as a large globe, 
and finding the continents and oceans. The location 
of all the chief countries with reference to North 
America and the home, and the familiarity with the 
cardinal directions, may be accomplished in a few 
lively oral lessons. 

9. Related topics in history. 

Local history, grandfather stories, family histo- 
ries, leading men and families. The early pioneers 
and settlers. Their houses. Regions from which 
they came and modes of travel at that time. Early 
roads. Indian stories and traditions of the surround- 
ing country. Improvements, such as roads, bridges, 
schoolhouses, railroads, etc. Historical relics, pub- 
lic buildings, monuments, museums. Places of his- 
toric interest. Historical celebrations. Decoration 
Day, Thanksgiving, etc. 

10. Closely related science topics. 

Garden vegetables, grasses, and grains. Hot- 
house plants, forest trees. Fruit trees, budding and 
grafting. Tree-planting. The changes of the sea- 
sons. Plant and animal life in ponds and creeks. 
Various soils, sands, rocks, and their \ises. Quarries 
and stratified rock. The water-supply, and pure 
water, wells, springs. Domestic animals and their 
uses. 

11. The Manual Arts supplies a number of closely 
related topics in primitive industries and present 
occupations. 

VOL. I — K 



130 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

FOURTH GRADE 

HOME GEOGRAPHY {continued) 

1. Local physiography. 

Excursions for the examination of landscapes, hills, 
valleys, streams, and tributaries. Water action upon 
soils, rocks, and valleys. Soils upon uplands and low- 
lands and effects upon vegetation. Rich bottom-lands. 
Modes of fertilizing fields, rotation of crops. Rock 
strata along streams and valley slopes. Deposits 
of sand gravel and glacial drift. Note the influence 
of valleys and hills upon the location of towns, 
bridges, course of railroads, wagon roads. General 
views from commanding points on hills or bluffs or 
high buildings over town and country. Climate and 
seasons, seasonal changes. Effects of rain-storms 
and floods. Spring freshets. Snow-storms and ice. 
Winds. Movements of the sun and moon and the 
varying length of day and night. The effect of 
changing seasons upon the occupations of men. 

2. Local commerce. 

The town as a local trade centre. Roads leading 
into the country. Products of farms, gardens, and 
forests brought into town. Railroads, freight offices, 
and shipment of goods. Local factories and their 
shipments. Goods retailed to town and country 
people. A small town is the best illustration for 
children of a trade centre. A county-seat is usually 



GEOGRAPHY 1 3 1 

the best example of a trade centre for all the roads 
of the county. 

3. Local government. 

The town council and how chosen. The mayor 
and his duties. Town ordinances in regard to police, 
roads, and bridges, gas or electric lighting, licenses, 
fire-department, etc. Local magistrates' and justices' 
courts. Local taxation and the uses to which it is put. 
The courthouse, county court, and trials. Judges and 
juries. County records in courthouse. In the home 
geography, government should deal with well-known 
people and objects which illustrate the facts of law- 
making, taxes, election, office-holding, and other duties 
of magistrates. In other words it should be very con- 
crete and illustrative. 

4. Large manufacturing plants. 

Visits to shoe-factories, planing-mills, railroad shops, 
foundries, grist-mills, furniture factories, printing- 
offices, waterworks, cotton or woollen mills, carriage 
factories, canneries for fruit or vegetables, wholesale 
houses, tile-works, and potteries, shipyards, dairies, 
sugar factories, etc. 

These more complex forms of industrial life are 
better visited in the fourth grade than in the third, 
and some of them belong in still later years. There 
should be a discussion in the class after each excur- 
sion, with such drawings and pictures as are necessary. 

5. A few leading topics of the home state. 

This is the first step in the outward movement from 



132 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

the home. The more striking and less difficult topics 
call for a very complete description. In New York 
State, for example, the following may serve : the 
Hudson River, the Adirondack Mountains, the Erie 
Canal, fruit-growing (apples and grapes), dairying, 
Lake Ontario. In the state of Illinois (treated as the 
home), the list of topics may be as follows : the Illi- 
nois River, the prairies, the corn-fields, the Illinois 
and Michigan Canal (also the Drainage Canal). 

The map of the state will be used freely and 
sketched often in outline on the board. 

6. The relief map of North America. 

A sand map representing the chief plains and 
highlands of North America. It can be made by 
the teacher while describing the continent in its 
main features. The treatment should be brief and 
simple, and the ideas gained will help to interpret 
the flat maps. 

7. Large descriptive topics of North America. 

A few such bold topics capable of picturesque por- 
traiture may give correct primary notions of moun- 
tains, river valleys, coast scenery, forests, lakes, cities, 
plains, etc. Large pictures and bird's-eye views, pan- 
oramic surveys, and landscapes may be secured. Pho- 
tographs and stereoscopic views of notable scenery 
are not difficult to secure, and the geographies con- 
tain many suitable pictures. 

Topics : scenes and descriptions along the Atlantic 
coast from Labrador to Florida, — capes and head- 



GEOGRAPHY 133 

lands, fishing fleets, beaches, and bathing resorts, light- 
houses, harbors, and cities, islands, rocky coasts, bays, 
and river mouths. A steamboat trip down the Mis- 
sissippi River from the Northern lakes to the delta, 
with pictures. Scenes from the Appalachian High- 
lands. Cattle ranches in the plains and foothills. 
The Yellowstone Park and other parks and scenes 
of the Rocky Mountains. A summer among the 
woods and mountains of Maine. A winter in Florida. 
The plateau of Mexico. 

8. Journeys around the world. 

A trip around the world on the parallel of the home. 
This forms an interesting base-line, on each side of 
which cities and countries can be ranged and a help- 
ful comparison of diverse countries be made. 

A trip around the world on a meridian. This 
brings out all the contrasts of climate, the similarity 
of Northern and Southern hemispheres and the 
differences. 

/ Steamboat voyage around the world. This is a 
means of discovering the position of different con- 
tinents and oceans and some of the peculiar things 
of ocean navigation. These three excursions may 
serve to give the children a more definite idea of 
the geography of the world-whole. Pictures should 
be freely used. 

9. Geography topics suggested by American His- 
tory Stories. 

After completing a history story, a lesson may 



134 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

well be given, surveying more fully the geographi- 
cal conditions involved in the story. For example, 
after completing Champlain's voyages and explora- 
tions, a careful survey of the geography of the whole, 
the St. Lawrence, Nova Scotia, Lake Champlain, the 
Ottawa River, the homes of the Iroquois and Hurons, 
the Atlantic Ocean and France, will greatly strengthen 
both the geography and the history. 

Other stories for a similar historical review are 
Hudson's voyages and explorations, the Pilgrims 
and the voyage across the Atlantic, Captain John 
Smith and his exploring trips, Boone and the passes 
of the Alleghanies, Raleigh's expeditions, Washing- 
ton's early life. 

10. Geographical surveys suggested by European 
history stories and the Bible stories. 

The stories of Abraham, Joseph, and David. 
Early Italian stories of Rome. Julius Caesar in 
Gaul and England. King Alfred and the Danes. 
The Angles and Saxons. 

In all these early history stories of Europe, a dis- 
tinct emphasis should be placed upon the geography. 
The transfer of this careful survey to the geography 
proper will insure a definite comprehension of the 
geographical situations. In all cases maps and 
blackboard sketches should be freely used. Pictures 
and sand maps, and all the means of concrete illus- 
tration, are needed to insure clear and correct 
notions. 



GEOGRAPHY I 35 

LIST OF BOOKS CAREFULLY ARRANGED ACCORDING 

TO GRADES 

The following list of books has been selected for 
the aid of teachers in carrying out the above course 
of study. 

In each grade the books are divided into two 
groups (except in third grade). 

1. The text-books which constitute the basis of 
the school work and are of use to both teacher and 
pupils. The standard text-books can be used in this 
place. 

2. The reference books v/hich are suitable for the 
children, such as geographical readers, books of 
travel, closely related books in history and science. 
These books are useful in the school library, and 
should be such as the children can consult indepen- 
dently and under the direction of the teacher. They 
cover a wider range of topics and give much detailed 
information not possible of incorporation into text- 
books. They are often well illustrated, and are 
written mostly in a simple and interesting style. 
They supplement effectively the work of the text- 
books, and give, also, an outlet for the activity of the 
abler pupils in their leisure time. 

THIRD GRADE 

I. Texts for the immediate use of the teacher. 
The Home Geography, First Book (Tarr and 
McMurry). The Macmillan Co. The topics on 



136 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

home geography and elementary physiography are 
well worked out. 

Other standard school geographies. 

Lessons in Home Geography (McMurry). The 
Macmillan Co. A series of illustrative lessons and 
excursions into various home districts fully described. 

Lalami, the Little Chff-dweller (Bayliss). The 
Public School Publishing Co. 

The Seven Little Sisters (Andrews). Ginn & Co. 

Each and All (Andrews). Ginn & Co. These two 
books have been much used in about third grade 
as an introduction to distant lands and peoples. 
Simple descriptions of child life and surroundings. 

The Wide World. Ginn & Co. 121 pp. 

Geographical Nature Studies (Payne). American 
Book Co. 144 pp. Very simple. 

Around the World, First Book (Carroll). The 
Morse Co. Suitable for children's reading. 

Home Geography (Long). American Book Co. 
142 pp. Very simple, with illustrations. 

Little Lucy's Wonderful Globe. The Macmillan Co. 

Big People and Little People of Other Lands 
(Shaw). American Book Co. 

Story of Wretched Flea (Muller). A. Flanagan & 
Co. The story of a little Chinese boy. 

Children of the Palm Lands (Allen). Educational 
Publishing Co. 

Snow Baby (Peary). F. A. Stokes & Co. A true 
story of Arctic life illustrated with photographs. 



GEOGRAPHY I 3/ 

Little People of Asia (Alice Thorne Miller). E. P. 
Button & Co. 

2. Additional references. 

Teacher's Manual of Geography (McMurry). The 
Macmillan Co. This is designed to go with the Tarr 
and McMurry Series. 

FOURTH GRADE 

1. Text-books for direct use, as a guide to the 
teacher, furnishing a course of study and materials. 

Home Geography (continued), First Book (Tarr 
and McMurry). The Macmillan Co. This book con- 
tains a somewhat full treatment of important topics, 
and can be used in part by the children for seat study 
and map work. 

Other standard school geographies. 

Lessons in Home Geography (McMurry). The 
Macmillan Co. In this, numerous excursions are 
described as taken with classes of children. Illus- 
trative lessons of home geography are also drawn 
from different parts of the country. 

In the above books is given also a treatment of the 
world-whole for third and fourth grades. 

2. Supplementary books' for children's reading and 
reference. Books for children's reading in this grade 
must be very simple in language. 

Around the World, Second Book (Carroll). The 
Morse Co. Very good. 

Selections from the Youth's Companion, Numbers 



138 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

10, II, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17. These are in cheap 
pamphlet form, well written and illustrated. Perry 
Mason & Co. 

The Wide World. Ginn & Co. 

Home Geography (Long). American Book Co. 

Big People and Little People of Other Lands 
(Shaw). American Book Co. 



ELEMENTARY SCIENCE 

We believe that a point has been reached where a 
definitely arranged course of nature study for the 
grades is demanded, and that the controlling points 
of view from which such a course can be rationally 
made out may be plainly demonstrated. 

Assuming this conclusion to be correct, we may 
first ask ourselves the advantages which may flow 
from such a series of topics for a course of study as 
can now be made. 

First. Such a course picks out a few centres 
where the efforts of teachers and pupils may be con- 
centrated. In view of the countless multitude and 
variety of nature-study topics, even a moderate de- 
gree of success in selecting would be a great unbur- 
dening. A course of study which will give us the 
typical and essential in this vast field will be a price- 
less economy. 

Second. The individual teachers should be relieved 
of the burden of selecting and arranging such a 
course. To leave this heavy problem in the hands 
of young and inexperienced teachers is worse than 
folly. There are, in fact, very few old and seasoned 
superintendents who would not hesitate to lay out a 

139 



140 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

definite course of study in elementary science. Yet 
their experience and qualifications for such a task 
must be twenty times that of the average grade 
teacher. Evidently such a course should be made 
out for the whole elementary school, not in eight 
unconnected fragments by eight people of different 
ideas. A wise superintendent will get together the 
best of his teachers and experts in nature study, and 
by mutual cooperation work out this problem. But 
we greatly need a much better course of study than 
has yet been worked out in this way. That the 
average grade teacher is wholly unqualified for this 
great task and should not be burdened with it ought 
to be frankly admitted. 

Third. When a fairly good course of study (prop- 
erly arranged through the grades with its great 
series of well-established centres) has been marked 
out, the rich and appropriate knowledge may be col- 
lected which is able to make these topics fruitful and 
profitable to children. This collecting of choice 
knowledge is a nice problem, requiring no small 
degree of scientific skill and pedagogical experience. 
To enrich these central topics with concrete knowl- 
edge appropriate to children is undoubtedly the 
work of specialists. 

To expect the average teacher to hunt up and 
bring together this fine assortment of knowledge 
and material is pure hallucination. An enthusiastic 
teacher of large experience, by overwork, or by 



ELEMENTARY SCIENCE I4I 

neglecting other important things, may accomplish 
this task for a single grade, but it is wholly unrea- 
sonable to expect it or to require it of anybody. 

It is the business of specialists to select and organ- 
ize this choice material of instruction and to put it 
into the handiest form for the teacher's immediate 
use. To master, assimilate, and skilfully use this 
gathered material in classes is the special task of the 
grade teacher, and this requires a full measure of 
labor, originality, and skill. 

Already a goodly number of important topics have 
been worked over in this way by specialists, and the 
suitable material brought into convenient form for 
the grade teacher. Enough, therefore, has been 
accomplished to demonstrate the feasibility of this 
plan. The poor results that have come from nature- 
study lessons have been due largely to the double 
burden which has been laid upon grade teachers, that 
of first collecting and working up the knowledge of 
these topics without proper helps, and that of the 
legitimate work of skilful ordering and instruction. 
We have been expecting grade teachers to make 
bricks without straw. The doctrine of division of 
labor applies with redoubled force to this branch of 
instruction in its present condition. 

Fourth. On the basis of the two points just named, 
it is possible for the teacher to concentrate her labors 
upon her peculiar task ; namely the mastery of this 
well-assorted material for the purposes of skilful 



142 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

instruction ; in short, what may be called knowledge 
and method. The principles of science instruction 
have been well worked out in full illustrations of the 
treatment of important topics. The study of these 
illustrations involves no slavish imitation of others' 
methods and processes, but rather a rational and even 
critical study of what the best teachers have done. 
This offers to every teacher a profitable field for 
thoughtful study, rational imitation of good models, 
and the development of original power and resource. 

Fifth. A well-arranged series of topics extending 
through the grades makes possible an orderly devel- 
opment of certain coherent lines of thought from 
year to year. Most people have felt the inherent 
weakness of our elementary science courses when 
judged from this fundamental point of view. Latin 
and arithmetic, for example, are supposed to possess 
this underlying coherency of thought, so that each 
later year's work is reenforced and strengthened by 
the earlier, and is, in fact, dependent upon it. The 
broad sweep and variety of nature studies have 
seemed to obliterate any connected plan and have 
left us in the confusion of a multitude of details. 

There are, however, a few important centres of 
nature-study work whose topics recur from year to 
year in continuous development. Such, for example, 
are the topics connected with health and physiology, 
plant life, sanitation, cooking, gardening and agricul- 
ture, applied physics, insect life, etc. In spite of 



ELEMENTARY SCIENCE 143 

the apparent miscellaneous character of its topics 
the great body of science lessons consists of several 
strong series of connected topics running through the 
grades. No study can be strongly educative that 
does not thus build steadily upon previous founda- 
tions. There is scarcely a lesson in the middle and 
later grades that does not reach back into two or 
more, often many, of the previous lessons. Good 
teaching will always recall these previous lessons and 
make use of them in building up an enlarged body of 
connected knowledge. 

A well-arranged course of study enables the teacher 
in any of the later grades to look back and to find 
out the previous acquisitions of the children, to re- 
view these lessons and bring them into proper rela- 
tion to the later studies. This review and focussing 
of all earlier lessons upon later ones is the essence of 
good teaching. Without a course of study or with a 
poor one this important result is defeated. 

Sixth. A well-selected course of study in element- 
ary science makes it possible for the teacher in any 
grade to concentrate her studies upon a few impor- 
tant topics suited to that grade, so as to become well 
equipped for teaching them. The great majority of 
elementary teachers have not been trained for teach- 
ing nature study, and they must pick up the essentials 
by the way. If the sources of knowledge are made 
easily available, energetic teachers will soon acquire 
an abundant material of experience and informa- 



144 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

tion. But it must be of the right sort and easily 
at hand. 

The following course of study contains a much 
larger list of topics than can be worked out fully in 
any one school, and will have to be modified to fit the 
needs of any particular locality. Every school will 
have to change such a plan to meet its own needs. 

Different neighborhoods (city and country or vil- 
lage life), and physical and climatic conditions in 
different parts of the United States, are so widely 
divergent that a definite course of study must be 
changed and adapted to local surroundings and 
needs. 

For these reasons any one course of study should 
be suggestive of broad and common lines of study, 
and yet as definite as possible in specific, typical 
topics. 

OUTLINE OF NATURE STUDY 
FALL TERM. FIRST GRADE ^ 

I. Birds, (a) Note the coming of the fall and 
winter birds after acquainting the children with them 
through the use of mounted specimens or colored pic- 
tures. Good colored pictures of birds can be ob- 
tained from the Perry Pictures Co., Maiden, Mass., 
or from A. W. Mumford, 378 Wabash Avenue, 

1 These topics need not be taken up in the order given here. The 
changes in nature will suggest the order. ' 



ELEMENTARY SCIENCE I45 

Chicago, 111. Do not use too many pictures. See 
that accurate outdoor observations are the main thing. 
Children easily deceive themselves and describe for 
outdoor observations what they remember of the pic- 
tures. In northern Illinois the children will look for 
the nuthatches, the brown creepers, the kinglets, the 
juncos, and the chickadees. 

{b) Report every day that the robin and blackbird 
are seen. They will probably be last seen in October. 

{c) What other birds are here 1 

2. Flowers, (a) Learn the names of the common 
fall flowers and associate with each a few striking 
characteristics. Press a good specimen of each vari- 
ety and mount all on a large sheet of cardboard, 
writing or printing by each its name and date. Where 
is each found and in company with what other 
flowers ? (List of half dozen.) 

(b) Study cinquefoil, evening primrose, and horse- 
mint, or other common flowers. 

(c) Early in the term study the blossom and plants 
of nasturtium and Lima bean. Save seeds of each 
for spring planting. 

3. Trees, (a) Learn to recognize trees by their 
fruits and by their leaves. The identification is 
associated with gathering the beautiful autumn leaves 
and nuts. 

(b) Press some of the leaves and mount on a large 
sheet of cardboard, placing by the side of each leaf 
its fruit in all cases where the latter can be obtained. 

VOL. I — L 



146 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

{c) Notice the galls on the oak, cottonwood, willow, 
and linden trees. Open to find what each contains. 

4. Vegetables. Recognize and name the fall vege- 
tables. Model in clay. 

5. Detailed study of the apple and the peach. 
Plant apple seeds and peach pits. 

6. Domestic animals. Life histories of the cat and 
the dog. 

7. Wild animals. Home life of the squirrel. 

8. Insects. Early in September gather a few grass- 
hoppers, locusts, and crickets. Place each kind in a 
glass jar in which there are three or four inches of 
soil. Feed with grass and bits of apple, beet, and 
carrot. Try other articles of food. See that they 
are fed each day. Quite likely some of them will 
lay eggs in the ground. 

Find how the cricket's chirp is made. 

9. Weather charts. Each month rule off on a large 
sheet of cardboard as many one and one-half inch 
squares as there are days in a month. Make seven 
in a row, one for each day in the week. On a bright 
day place a yellow circle in the square in which the 
day's weather is to be recorded. On a cloudy day 
use a gray circle. A half circle of yellow or gray 
indicates the kind of weather for a half day. Special 
days, e.g. Washington's Birthday, may be marked by 
some emblem of significance of the day placed upon 
the circle. 

Make summaries at the end of each week of the 



ELEMENTARY SCIENCE I4/ 

number of bright days and the number of dark days 
during that week. At the end of a month find the 
number of bright days and the number of dark days 
in the month. At the end of the year compare the 
calendars to find the pleasantest month and the 
darkest month. 

HELPS 

1. Migration of birds. 

Everyday Birds (Bradford Torrey). 
How to Attract Birds (Neltje Blanchan). 
First Book of Birds (Olive Thorne Miller). 
The Foot-path Way (Bradford Torrey). 
Bird Life (Frank Chapman). 

2. Helps in the naming a^id study of flowers. 

Nature's Garden (Neltje Blanchan). 

A Guide to the Wild Flowers (Alice Lounsberry). 

Field Book of American Wild Flowers (F. 

Schuyler Mathews). 
Familiar Flowers of Field and Garden (F. 

Schuyler Mathews). 
According to Seasons (Frances Theodora 

Parsons). 
Wild Flowers of America (Goodale). 
For the study of the nasturtium, see — 
Lessons in Nature Study (Mrs. Lida McMurry). 
Flowers and their Friends (Margaret Morley). 
A Few Familiar Flowers (Margaret Morley). 
A good botany will help in the study of both the 

nasturtium and the bean. 



148 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

3. Helps in the study of the trees. 

Our Native Trees and How to Identify Them 

(Harriet S. Keeler). 
Familiar Trees and their Leaves (F. Schuyler 

Mathews). 
Trees of the Northern United States (Austin C. 

Apgar). 
See chapter on '* Galls " in Among the Moths 

and Butterflies (Julia P. Ballard). 

4. Vegetables. 

Lessons in Nature Study (McMurry). 

5. The apple. 

For appreciation of the apple, see — 
The Apple (John Burroughs). 
Nature Study and Life (Hodge). 

6. The peach. See — 

Lessons in Nature Study (McMurry). 

7. The cat. 

The Cat (R. S. Hinderkoper). 

Our Home Pets (Olive Thorne Miller). 

Schmeil, Introduction to Zoology. 

8. The dog. 

Animal Memoirs, Part I (Dr. Lockwood). 
Our Home Pets (Olive Thorne Miller). 
Special Method in Science (McMurry). 
Domesticated Animals (N. S. Shaler). 
The Play of Animals (Karl Groos). 
Training of a Hunting Dog, Country Life in 
America^ November, 1903. 



ELEMENTARY SCIENCE I49 

Beautiful Joe. 

Science Reader, Book I. 

Lange's Handbook of Nature Study. 

Cats and Dogs (James Johonnot). 

Lives of the Hunted (Ernest Thompson Seton). 
9. The squirrel. 

Squirrels and Other Fur-Bearers (John Bur- 
roughs). 

Lobo, Rag, and Vixen (Ernest Thompson Seton). 

Lessons in Science (McMurry). 

Wild Neighbors (Ernest Ingersoll). 

Winter Sunshine (John Burroughs). 

Country Cousins (Ernest Ingersoll). 

Life of Animals (Mammals) (Brehm). 
10. For study of grasshoppers ^ locusts ^ and crickets ^ 
see — 

Life Histories of American Insects (Clarence 
Moores Weed). 

Little Folks in Feathers and Fur (Olive Thorne 
Miller). 

Zoology, 2 vols. (Colton). 

Insect Life (John Henry Comstock). 

Needham's Elementary Lessons in Zoology. 

WINTER TERM. FIRST GRADE 

1. Domestic animals. Study of the cow, the horse, 
and the tame rabbit. 

2. Wild animals. Life of the gray rabbit, compar- 
ing it with that of the tame rabbit. 



I50 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

3. Clothing of the children^ connected with the use, 
and adaptability to use, of the coats of animals previ- 
ously studied. Kinds and uses of clothing. Dangers 
of scanty or wet clothing. 

4. Goldfish. Uses of fins and tail in moving about. 
How they eat. How they breathe. 

5. Frost. As seen in its effects ; e.g. painting of 
the window-panes, breaking of pitchers and water- 
pipes. 

6. Birds, {a) Have a care for the winter birds. 
Attract them to the school building by providing 
meals in a certain spot every day. Hang suet in 
trees near by. 

(J?) The latter part of the term look for the return 
of the early spring birds. In northern Illinois they 
are the robin, bluebird, blackbird, red-winged black- 
bird, meadow-lark, and song-sparrow. 

7. Plan the school garden and get seeds of Lima 
bean and nasturtium ready for planting in boxes in 
the house early in the spring term. 

8. Trees, {a) Watch for pussy-willows and silver- 
maple blossoms, (p) Early in the term notice the 
large buds of some tree, e.g. the buckeye or hickory. 
See if any changes appear in these buds later in the 
term. 

HELPS 

I. {a) The cow. 

Cats and Dogs (James Johonnot). 



ELEMENTARY SCIENCE I5I 

Davenport, Leaflets on Agriculture in the School 
News. 
{b) The horse. 

The Horse (Flower). 

Modern Science Series. 

Black Beauty (Sewell). 

Cats and Dogs (James Johonnot). 

2. Gray rabbit. 

Wild Neighbors (Ernest Ingersoll). 
Animal Memoirs, Part I (Dr. Lockwood). 
Squirrels and Other Fur-Bearers (John Bur- 
roughs). 
Lobo, Rag, and Vixen (Ernest Thompson Seton). 
Science Reader, Book 2 (Vincent T. Murche). 
Four-footed Americans (Mabel Osgood Wright). 

3. Clothing. 

Science Reader, Book 5 (Vincent T. Murche). 
Zoology, 2 vols. (Colton). 

4. Goldfish. 

5. How to attract the birds. 

Everyday Birds (Bradford Torrey). 

First Book of Birds (Olive Thorne Miller). 

How to Attract the Birds (Neltje Blanchan). 

Nature Study and Life (Hodge). 

The Clerk of the Woods (Bradford Torrey). 

Birds in the Bush (Bradford Torrey). 

The Foot-path Way (Bradford Torrey), 

Bird-dom (Leander Keyser). 

In Bird Land (Leander Keyser). 



152 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

Home Studies in Nature (Mary Treat). 

Bird Homes (Dugmore). Doubleday, Page, & Co. 

6. School gardens. 

How to Make School Gardens (Hemenway). 
Kindergarten Review, 10 : 22. 
Garden Making (Bailey). 

7. In addition to the books already mentioned on 

trees, see — 
Little Wanderers (Margaret M or ley), for study 

of the pussy-willow, and 
Talks Afield (L. H. Bailey). 
Ten New England Blossoms (Clarence Moores 

Weed). 
Seed Travellers (Clarence Moores Weed). 
Study of Trees in Winter (Hutchinson). 
Flower and Fruit (Jane H. Newell). 
Lessons with Plants (L. H. Bailey). 
Our Native Shrubs (Keeler). 

SPRING TERM. FIRST GRADE 

I. Birds, (a) Watch for the newcomers. There 
will be many of them. Learn their names before 
they come, if possible, as suggested before. Notice 
what the birds are doing, and make daily reports if 
there is anything of interest to tell. Hold closely 
to actual observations. 

(^) Study in detail the robin and the red-headed 
woodpecker. 



ELEMENTARY SCIENCE 1 53 

2. Flowers, (a) Watch for the early spring flowers. 
As they are brought in, press one of each and mount 
on a large cardboard, giving its name and the date 
when found. 

{h) Study in detail the violet and (c) the spring 
beauty. 

3. Trees, {a) Watch the development of the buds 
studied last term. Watch, also, the development of 
the buds of the apple and peach to complete the 
study of these fruits begun in the fall. 

(b) Notice what trees are first in leaf and identify 
trees by their green leaves. 

{c) Gather seeds of silver maple, elms, willows, 
Cottonwood, and poplars, — any or all of these, — and 
complete the tree charts begun in the fall. 

(d) Plant seeds of each in the school garden and 
watch their growth. 

{e) Watch and care for the seedling apple and 
peach trees. 

4. Germination of seeds. Early in the term plant 
in boxes in the schoolhouse seeds of Lima bean and 
nasturtium. Watch and describe developments. This 
will complete the study of. these plants which was 
begun in the fall. 

5. Plant in the school garden Lima beans and 
nasturtiums for fall study of the entering classes. 
Watch their growth and give them good care, water- 
ing, if necessary, and keeping free from weeds. 

Raise enough beans so that the children may store 



154 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

up a quantity of the ripe seeds to send out at Thanks- 
giving time to those who are in need. The nastur- 
tium blossoms may be sent to sick rooms or to 
children's hospitals, and may be used also to decorate 
the schoolrooms. 

HELPS IN SPRING STUDY 

I. (a) How to identify the birds. 

Bird Neighbors (Neltje Blanchan). 

Birds that Hunt and are Hunted (Blanchan). 

Bird-dom (Leander Keyser). 

Bird Life (Frank M. Chapman). 

Handbook of Birds (Chapman). 

The Common Land Birds of New England (Wil- 
cox). 

Wild Birds in City Park (Walter). 
(h) Robin. 

Animal Memoirs, Part H (Dr. Lockwood). 

Birds and Poets (John Burroughs). 

Upon the Tree-tops (Olive Thorne Miller). 

Birds through an Opera Glass (Florence Mer- 
riam). 

Lessons in Science (McMurry). 
{c) Red-headed woodpecker. 

The Woodpeckers (Eckstorm). 

Animal Memoirs, Part H (Dr. Lockwood). 

Nestlings of Forest and Marsh (Irene Grovenor 
Wheelock). 

Lessons in Nature Study (Mrs. Lida McMurry). 



ELEMENTARY SCIENCE 1 55 

2. (a) How to identify the flowers — see books sug- 

gested for flower study. 
{b) The violet, see — 

Lessons in Nature Study (McMurry). 

Flowers, Fruits, and Leaves (Sir John Lub- 
bock). 

Familiar Flowers of Field and Garden (F. Schuy- 
ler Mathews). 

Ten New England Blossoms (Clarence Moores 
Weed). 

Flower and Fruit (Jane H. Newell). 
(c) The spring beatcty, see — 

Lessons in Nature Study (McMurry). 

Ten New England Blossoms (Clarence Moores 
Weed). 

How to Study Plants (Alphonse Wood). 

Flower and Fruit (Jane H. Newell). 

3. (a) For study of buds, see — 

Lessons with Plants (L. H. Bailey). 
Bailey's Botany. 

Outlines of Lessons in Botany (Jane H. Newell). 
Lessons in Nature Study (McMurry). 
The Clerk of the Woods (Bradford Torrey). 
{b and ^) See books on study of trees suggested 
for fall study. 

4. For germination of seeds, ^^0, — 

Outlines of Lessons in Botany (Jane H. Newell). 
Concerning a Few Common Plants (Goodale). 
Atkinson's Botany. 



156 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

Seed Babies (Margaret Morley). 
Lessons with Plants (L. H. Bailey). 
From Seed to Leaf (Jane H. Newell). 
Lessons in Botany (Gray). 

FALL TERM. SECOND GRADE 

1. (a) Review and continue the study of birds 
begun a year ago, learning the names and habits of 
additional birds. 

(^b) The common crow. 

2. (a) Review the names and characteristics of the 
fall flowers learned a year ago. Add to the list many 
others. 

(J?) Study the pumpkin flower and fruit. 

(c) Study the melon by comparison with the pump- 
kin. 

{d) Study the sweet pea by comparison with the 
Lima bean, 

{e) By comparison with the pea and bean study the 
red, white, and sweet clovers. 

(/) Study in detail the wild black mustard. Later 
compare the hedge mustard and cresses with it. 

(g) Study the sunflower as a type of the composites 
so common at this time of year. 

Qi) Compare other composite flowers, as the asters 
and daisy fleabane, with it. 

{i) Study in detail the morning-glory. 

(y) Save seeds of pumpkin, morning-glory, sweet 
pea, and sunflower for spring planting. 



ELEMENTARY SCIENCE 157 

3. Trees, {a) Review the trees with their names as 
autumn leaves are gathered and learn the names of 
the other trees. 

{p) When the leaves are off the trees learn to 
recognize the different trees by their buds, by their 
outline, and by their bark. Let this study include 
the cherry and pear. 

ic) Gather acorns of the different kinds of oak 
growing in the vicinity and plant in the school garden 
where they will not be disturbed in the spring. Mark 
plainly the portion of ground occupied by each variety. 
Make a plat of the tree bed, also, for reference in the 
spring. 

{d) Winter study of the Austrian pine. 

{e) Other evergreen trees by comparison with the 
pine. Study just before Christmas. 

(/) Continue to care for apple and plum seedlings. 

4. Fruits. Detailed study of the grape. Make 
cuttings of the vine and plant in the tree garden. 
Plant seeds also. 

5. BtLtterfiies. (a) Detailed study of the " cabbage- 
worm " and milkweed caterpillar early in the term. 
Find eggs of the butterflies, if possible, and watch 
their development through the larva and chrysalid 
state. If the eggs cannot be procured, the caterpil- 
lars may be found. Collect and feed. Study the 
butterflies. 

{p) Collect other caterpillars and feed. Notice 
how they feed and how they make their cradles or 



158 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

change into chrysalids. Supply dirt, leaves, and 
twigs. 

{c) Collect cocoons and keep through the winter in 
the schoolroom. 

6. Dissemination of seeds. Notice two different 
ways of getting out into the world : (a) by flying, 
using wings, or a parachute; (^) by stealing rides on 
clothing or on the coats of animals. 

7. Bulbs. Plant bulbs of crocus and tulips out of 
doors. 

By the first of October put Chinese lily bulbs into 
glass dishes of water and plant the paper — white nar- 
cissus in pots for fall blossoms. Prepare proper soil. 
At intervals of two weeks or more plant a new 
supply of each. 

8. Make calendars in book form in which records 
of the dark and sunny days are kept in colored 
crayons. The directions of the cold winds, the 
warmer winds, and the winds that bring the snow 
are indicated by arrows pointing in the direction 
from which the wind comes. 

9. Winter study of other evergreen trees. 

10. Make in water-colors a picture of the land- 
scape as it appears at the beginning of each month. 

HELPS FOR FALL TERM 

I. {a) See books suggested for the bird study of 
the previous year. 
(h) The crow. 



ELEMENTARY SCIENCE 1 59 

Some Common Birds in their Relation to Agri- 
culture. Hawks and Owls from the Stand- 
point of a Farmer. The Common Crow. All 
published by the United States Department 
of Agriculture. 

Animal Memoirs, Part II (Dr. Lockwood). 

Upon the Tree-tops (Olive Thorne Miller). 

Birds through an Opera Glass (Florence 
Merriam). 

Winter Sunshine (John Burroughs). 

Little Brothers of the Air (Olive Thorne 
Miller). 

The Play of Animals (Karl Groos). 

Bits of Bird Life (Youth's Companion, Supple- 
mentary Reading No. 7). 
For study of fall flowers see books recommended 
for first grade. 

For helps in the study of the sweet pea, see — 

Life Story of the Sweet Pea, in First Studies 
in Plant Life (George Francis Atkinson). 

For study of the clovers, see — 

Lessons with Plants (L. H. Bailey). 

Chapters in Modern Botany (Patrick Geddes). 

For study of the morning-glory, see — 

Flowers and their Friends (Margaret Morley). 
Trees, {a) See the names of books on study of 
trees given in first grade. 

Nut-planting, see — 

Nature Study and Life (Hodge). 



l60 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

Nut Culture in the United States, United States 
Department of Agriculture. / 

The Forest Nursery, Bulletin No. 29, United 
States Department of Agriculture (Bureau of 
Forestry). / 

4. The grape. / 

Nature Study and Life (Hodge). ' 

Government Bulletin on the Grape. 

5. Milkweed butterfly. 

Among the Moths and Butterflies (Julia P. 

Ballard). 
Life Histories of American Insects (Clarence 

Moores Weed). 
The Butterfly Book (Dr. W. J. Holland). 
Practical Zoology (Buel P. Colton). 
The Milkweed Butterfly (Samuel H. Scudder)* 
Everyday Butterflies (Samuel H. Scudder). 

6. Cabbage biitterjly. 

Among the Moths and Butterflies (Julia P. 

Ballard). 
Needham's Elementary Lessons in Zoology. 
The Butterfly Book (Dr. W. J. Holland). 
Stories of Insect Life (Clarence Moores Weed). 
Everyday Butterflies (Samuel H. Scudder). 

7. Dissemination of seeds. 

Little Wanderers (Margaret Morley). 
Fertilization of Plants (Sir John Lubbock). 
Seed Travellers (Clarence Moores Weed). 
Seed Dispersal (W. J. Beal), 



ELEMENTARY SCIENCE l6l 

Glimpses of the Plant World (Bergen). 

First Studies in Plant Life (George Francis 

Atkinson). 
Plant Studies (Coulter). 
A Reader in Botany (Jane H. Newell). 

8. Bulbs, 

The Winter Window Garden, in Country Life, 

November, 1903. 
Flowers and their Friends (Margaret Morley). 
How to Study Plants (Alphonse Wood). 

9. Study of Austrian pine, see — 

Lessons in Nature Study (Mrs. Lida McMurry). 

WINTER TERM. SECOND GRADE 

1. Birds, {a) What birds remain all winter } (In 
northern Illinois we have the EngHsh sparrow, blue 
jay, crow, prairie horned lark, screech owl, brown 
creeper, downy and hairy woodpeckers, junco, and 
chickadee.) What do they feed upon in the 
winter .? 

{U) As in the first grade, attract the winter birds 
to the school building and the homes of the pupils 
by furnishing a tempting bill of fare. 

{c) Study in detail the hen. 

(d) Study the EngHsh sparrow. 

{e) Note the time of the return of the birds from 
the South. Keep a record in a note-book which the 
children prepare especially for the purpose. 

2. (a) Search the woods for the March flowers. 

VOL. I — M 



1 62 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

In northern Illinois the following may sometimes 
be found : {a) hepatica, (b) spring beauty, and {c) a 
few dandelions. Often other varieties are to be 
found. 

{b) Study the crocus in March. 

3. Trees and vines and bushes, {a) In March 
watch the development of the (i) lilac buds, also 
buds of (ii) the American elm, and (iii) box elder. 

{b) Watch the cherry and the pear buds to see if 
any changes occur. 

{c) Notice occasionally the buds of the grapevine 
to see if they are swelling. 

4. Study of stones and pebbles. 

5. Make a picture of the landscape in water-colors 
at the beginning of each month. 

6. Good health. To what due ? {a) Fresh air and 
exercise. Breathing. 

{h) Care of the skin. Why keep clean ? 
(c) Care of the teeth. Why .? 
{d) Care of the finger-nails. Why ? 
{e) Sleep. When } How long } 
(/) Getting the feet wet. Wet clothing and the 
danger. 

HELPS 
I. Birds. 

{a) See books suggested for first year's work. 

{b) Food of Birds. 

Seed Travellers (Clarence Moores Weed). 

How to Attract the Birds (Neltje Blanchan). 



ELEMENTARY SCIENCE 1 63 

Nature Study and Life (Hodge). 
(<;) The hen. 

Domesticated Animals (N. S. Shaler). 
Animal Memoirs, Part II (Dr. Lockwood). 
(<^) English sparrows. 

Lives of the Hunted (Ernest Thompson Seton). 
Birds' Ways (Olive Thorne Miller). 
Nature Study and Life (Hodge). 
{e) Spring migration. See books suggested the 
previous year. 
For study of buds see books suggested the 
previous year. 
2. Stones and pebbles. 

First Lessons in Geology (N. S. Shaler). 

Town Geology (Charles Kingsley). 

How to Read a Pebble (Fred L. Charles). 

SPRING TERM. SECOND GRADE 

1. Birds, {a) Continue to note the arrival of the 
common summer residents. 

(b) Watch for the warblers and other birds that 
pass through on their way North. 

ic) Make a record in the Bird Note-book of the 
time at which each appears. 

id) Make a careful study of the robin. 

{e) Study the nesting habits of other songsters. 

(/) Study the red-headed woodpecker. 

2. Flowers, {a) Each child make a collection of 
spring flowers, pressing and mounting in a book, 



164 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

and writing beside each flower the name and date 
on which it was found. Take care not to waste 
the flowers. 

(b) Study the tulip. 

(c) Follow one dandelion blossom from the time it 
first appears above ground through the ripening of 
the seed. Pupils keep a written record of what they 
discover. 

{d) Study the hepatica. 
{e) Study the wild rose. 

3. Trees and vines, (a) Follow the growth of the 
seedlings from the acorns and nuts planted in the fall. 
Keep the nut bed clean and transplant the seedlings 
when necessary. 

{d) Spring study of the Austrian pines and other 
evergreen trees. 

(c) Follow the blossoms of the cherry buds into 
ripened fruit and the pear buds into fruit. 

(d) Follow the buds of the American elm, box 
elder, and lilac into leaf and through blossom. 

(e) Follow the buds of the grape until the fruit is 
well set. 

(/) Care for the grape cuttings. 

4. Seed planting. Plant in the school garden seeds 
of {a) sweet pea, iU) morning-glory, {c) sunflower, and 
(</) pumpkin. Watch and describe the development 
in each case, {e) Late in the term plant cherry pits 
in the school garden. 

5. Get frog or toad spawn and watch the changes. 



ELEMENTARY SCIENCE l6$ 

6. Make in water-colors the appearance of the 
landscape the first of each month. 



HELPS 
I. (a) The warblers. 

The Clerk of the Woods (Bradford Torrey). 
(^) Robin. 
Birds and Poets (John Burroughs). 
Upon the Tree-tops (Olive Thorne Miller). 
Birds through an Opera Glass (Florence Mer- 

riam). 
Animal Memoirs, Part II (Dr. Lockwood). 
Nestlings of Forest and Marsh (Irene Grovenor 

Wheelock). 
Bits of Bird Life (Youth's Companion, Supple- 
mentary Reading No. 7). 
The Clerk of the Woods (Bradford Torrey). 

(c) Nesting habits. 

Nestlings of Forest and Marsh (Irene Grovenor 

Wheelock). 
Bird Homes (Dugmore). Doubleday, Page, 

& Co. 
Sharp Eyes (John Burroughs). 

(d) Study the red-headed woodpecker. 
The Woodpeckers (Eckstorm). 

Bits of Bird Life (Youth's Companion, Supple- 
mentary Reading No. 7). 
Animal Memoirs, Part II (Dr. Lockwood). 



1 66 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

The Clerk of the Woods (Bradford Torrey). 
Nestlings of Forest and Marsh (Irene Grovenor 
Wheelock). 
2 . Flowers. 
{a) Tulip. 

(b) Dandelion. 

Bailey's Lessons with Plants. 

First Studies in Plant Life (George Francis 
Atkinson). 

Flowers, Fruits, and Leaves (Sir John Lub- 
bock). 

Familiar Flowers of Field and Garden (F. Schuy- 
ler Mathews). 

Little Wanderers (Margaret Morley). 

Little Travellers (Clarence Moores Weed). 

(c) Hepatica. 

How to Study Plants (Alphonse Wood). 
Familiar Flowers of Field and Garden (F. Schuy- 
ler Mathews). 

(d) Wild rose, see — 

Lessons in Science (Mrs. Lida McMurry). 
Flowers and Ferns of United States (Thomas 

Meehan). 
2. Tree seedlings. 

Life Story of the Oak, in First Studies in 

Plant Life (George Francis Atkinson). 

4. Buds. See Helps for previous year. 

5. Frogs and toads. 

Nature Study and Life (Hodge). 



ELEMENTARY SCIENCE iSj 

FALL TERM. THIRD GRADE 

I. Plants of the garden a7id j/ard {contmu.a.tion of 
spring studies). (a) The sunflower. Its powers 
of growth during the summer. Where it is usually 
found. Springs up in gardens where sunflowers 
have grown the year before. Period of growth. 
Study of the great heads, size, and arrangement of 
parts. Use of seeds by birds. Number of seeds ; 
number of heads. Suggest comparison with other 
composite flowers in the fall ; other large annuals, as 
corn plant, giant ragweed, mustard, etc. 

(3) Dandelions in the fall. Tendency to spring up 
and blossom during summer and fall till winter begins. 
Due to wet weather, strong rootstock, and many buds 
or sprouting stems. 

References. 

How to Study Plants (Wood), pp. 143-147. 
Handbook of Nature Study (Lange), pp. 50-57. 
Plants and their Children (Dana). 

(c) The pumpkin. Growth and extent of vines 
during summer and fall. Number of blossoms and 
pumpkins on a vine. Continuous growth and forma- 
tion of new pumpkins till frost. Effects of frost. 
Interior structure of pumpkin. Uses to man and 
as feed for stock. Similarity to squashes and melons. 
Origin of the pumpkin; its use among Indians and 
pioneers. In connection with this lesson, review the 



1 68 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

planting and germination of pumpkin seeds in the 
spring. 

id) The morning-glory. Growth of vines and how 
they climb. Tendrils. Flowers, pods, and seeds. 
Shutting and opening of blossoms. Visited by in- 
sects. Effect of frosts upon the vine. Other climb- 
ing plants cultivated about the house and garden, and 
a brief comparison. 

{e) Growth of seedling trees in the garden and 
yard (continuation). Amount of growth in length 
and size during the season. Differences in different 
kinds of seedlings : oaks, elms, maples. Note the 
natural springing up of different seedlings at differ- 
ent seasons of the year. Take care of seedlings in 
the garden for later transplanting. 

(/) The grapevine (continuation). Growth of the 
vine during the season. Tendrils and climbing habit. 
Amount of growth. Care of" cuttings. Ripening of 
the fruit. Kinds of fruit. Care and cultivation of 
the vines. Pruning. Preparation for winter. Com- 
pare vine and fruit of the wild grapevine with the 
cultivated varieties. Effects of cultivation. 

References. 

A Few Familiar Flowers (Morley). 

How a Squash Plant Grows out of the Seed. 

Cornell Teachers' Leaflets, No. i. 
The Practical Garden Book (Bailey). 

2. The robins J bluebirds y and blackbirds in the fall 



ELEMENTARY SCIENCE 169 

(review and continuation). Food and haunts in the 
fall. To what extent are they seen in the fall ? 
Where they spend the winters. Notice the collection 
of great flocks of blackbirds in the fall in the groves 
and corn-fields. Other birds in fields and hedges. 
Observe the old nests and their construction. 

References. 

The Woodpeckers (Eckstorm). 

Some Common Birds. Farmers' Bulletin, No. 54, 

or First Book of Birds (Miller). 
Birds of Village and Field (Merriam). 
Birds of the United States (Apgar). 

3. Trees of orchard and grove, (a) The apple 
tree. Review of spring studies. The orchard ; early 
and late apples. Chief common kinds, size, appear- 
ance, and quality. Wormy apples and reasons. 
Failure of some trees to bear fruit though blossoming 
freely. Reasons. 

References. 

Nature Study and Life, Chapter XI (Hodge). 
The Nursery Book (Bailey). 

(h) Austrian Pine. Amount of growth during the 
the season. Buds. Keeping the leaves. Excursions 
to the grove. Seedlings. Growth of the cones. 
Collection of cones, buds, and needles. The ever- 
green grove or forest. Kinds and age of trees. 
Birds which nest and roost among the evergreens, as 



I/O COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

crows, woodpeckers, etc. When the needles falL 
Growth of new needles. 

References. 

First Book of Forestry (Roth). 

Trees of Northern United States (Apgar). 

Nursery Book (Bailey). 

Evergreens, and How they Shed their Leaves. 
Cornell Teachers* Leaflets, No. 13. 
(a) The grasshopper or locust in the field. Life in 
the meadow. Movement of grasshoppers. Their 
food and organs. Powers of leaping and flying. 
Young and old. Nymphs. Their moulting and growth. 
Collection and feeding of specimens. The life history. 
Depositing of eggs. Protective coloring. Enemies 
that feed upon them. Chickens. Migrations of 
grasshoppers. Their ravages. Other insects of the 
meadows : crickets, katydids, the walking stick. 

References. 

Elementary Lessons in Zoology. The Grass- 
hopper, p. 48 (Needham). 
Life Histories of American Insects, Chapters VH, 

Vni, and IX (Weed). 
Nature Study and Life (Hodge). 
{h) Cockroaches. A pest in the house. Places in- 
fested by them. How to get rid of them. 

References. 

Book of Bugs (Sutherland). 

Domestic Science in Elementary Schools (Wilson). 



ELEMENTARY SCIENCE I7I 

5. The kitchen. Garden vegetables brought into 
the kitchen. The cleaning and preparation of vege- 
tables for the table. What vegetables require no 
cooking : lettuce, radishes, celery. Those requiring 
cooking and why, as potatoes, beets, onions, parsnips, 
beans, and peas. The effects of cooking on taste and 
quality of foods. 

References. 

The Chemistry of Cookery (Williams). 
Domestic Science in Elementary Schools (Wil- 
son). 
TheVegetable Garden. Farmers' Bulletin, No. 94. 

6. The effects of cold and frost with approaching 
winter. Changes in temperature measured by ther- 
mometer. Effects on gardens and vegetation. The for- 
est. Effects upon animals. Hairy covering. Changes 
in clothing with approaching winter. The formation 
of ice in a pail. In ponds and streams. Effects of 
cold in the house. Heating. Uses of the thermom- 
eter. Changes in position of the sun and length of day 
with approaching winter. 

References. 

Notes on the Frost. Farmers' Bulletin, No. 104. 

WINTER TERM. THIRD GRADE 

I. Pet animals and birds, {a) Barnyard fowl in 
winter. Warm chicken houses. Pet chickens and 
ducks. Food : grain, waste from the table. Need of 



1/2 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

sand and gravel. Watering the fowl. Danger from 
extreme cold. 

{b) Pet canary bird in cage. Care in providing 
bird-food, water, warmth, perches, bathing-dish. Ob- 
serve its motions, behavior toward friends and stran- 
gers. Its fear of cats and the danger of cats. Its 
songs and speech. The parrot. Its food, talk, etc. 

References. 

Fowls, Care and Feeding. Farmers' Bulletin, 

No. 41. 
Ducks and Geese. Farmers' Bulletin, No. 64. 

2. HoiLse plants. Care of plants by the children. 

ia) What house plants are kept in winter. Posi- 
tion at windows or otherwise. Care of house plants: 
heat, water, soil, sun. Geraniums and begonias. 
Propagating. Visit to a hothouse. How warmed. 
Native homes of hothouse plants. Insects infesting 
plants and how to deal with them. 

ib) Tropical fruits: orange, lemon, and banana. 
Trees in hothouses. 

References. 

The Practical Garden Book (Hunn and Bailey), 
Garden Making (Bailey). 

3. Uses of fire about the house, (a) Heating. 
Effects as shown by thermometer. Kinds of fuel 
used : wood, hard and soft coal, oil, gas. Other com- 
bustible things. How fires are started. Matches. 
KindHng. Dangers from fire. 



ELEMENTARY SCIENCE 1 73 

{b) Cooking. Several ways of cooking with fire : 
boiling, roasting, broiling, baking, steaming. 

{c) Laundry use. 

{d) Uses of chimneys, stoves. Fireproof ma- 
terials. 

{e) Other uses of fire. In working metals. Black- 
smith. Tinner. Soldering. For engines and steam. 

(/) Source of heat in the sun. 

4. Foods and eating, (a) Variety of useful foods, 
meats, fruits, vegetables, fish, etc. Most nourishing 
foods and drinks. Hurtful foods and drinks. Unripe 
and spoiled fruits. Bad habits in eating. Rapid 
eating. Not chewing food. Intemperance in eating 
and drinking. Use of the teeth. The care of the 
teeth. Structure of the teeth. Neglect and injury 
to the teeth. Advice of a dentist in regard to the 
teeth. Excessive eating of candies and sweetmeats. 
Poorly cooked foods. How cooking improves foods. 
Good manners at the table. The decoration of the 
table with flowers and fruits. 

References. 

Foods, Nutritive Value and Cost. Farmers' 
Bulletin, No. 23. 

Domestic Science in Elementary Schools (Wil- 
son). 

5. Signs of returning spring, (a) Days growing 
longer. Sun higher. Sunset points. 

{b) Breaking up of ice ; melting of snows ; floods. 



1/4 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

(c) Returning of birds. Examples : robin, meadow- 
lark, bluebird, song-sparrow. 

Early plants and flowers. Crocus, tulip, anemone, 
hepatica (review). 

Birds departing for the North, chickadee, snow- 
birds, etc. 

(d) Trees. Sap running, buds swelling. Willow. 

(e) Animals coming from winter homes. Squirrels, 
frogs, turtles, insects. 

(/) Changes in the appearance of the woods and 
fields. 

(g) Average temperature out of doors. Ther- 
mometer. 

{k) Cloudy and rainy weather. Bad roads, mud. 

(J) Grass on lawn and fields takes on a green tint. 

(j) Cause of all these changes. 

(k) Effects upon people. Preparation of farmers 
and gardeners for spring work. 

6. TAe window garden in March. Boxes and soil. 
Germination of garden and flower seeds. Care of 
growing plants. Transfer to school garden later. 

References. 

The Practical Garden Book (Hunn and Bailey). 

Garden Making (Bailey). 

Plants and their Children (Dana). 

SPRING TERM. THIRD GRADE 

I. The garden, (a) The school garden. Prepa- 
ration of the soil. Planting of beans, peas, corn, 
and potatoes, four-o'clock and aster. 



ELEMENTARY SCIENCE 1 75 

Careful cultivation. Weeds and grasses. Notice 
effects of weather, storms, warm days, etc. Watch 
growth of the plants. Continue study of these in fall. 

ip) Encouragement of home gardens. Visit such 
gardens and compare with school garden. The home 
garden may be continued more easily through the 
summer. 

{c) Visit larger gardens and notice modes of culti- 
vation, tools, results, etc. 

{d) Special study of plants being raised in the 
garden, as to seed, soil, cultivation, grubs and insects 
injurious to plants. Caterpillar on parsnip and 
parsley. 

{e) The potato plant. Underground stem and 
tubers. The blossom. The potato-beetle. Its harm, 
and how to destroy it. 

References. 

Garden Making. Suggestions for utilizing Home 

Grounds (Bailey). 
The Practical Garden Book (Bailey). 
The Soil (King). 

2. Roadside and field plants. (^) Plantain, curly 
dock, wild parsnip, dandelion, daisy fleabane, sweet 
clover, and other rootstocks. Early spring plants 
which are perennials. Excursions to find and dig up 
these rootstocks. Rhubarb and horse-radish in gar- 
dens. Study in class of the rootstocks. Where do 
these plants flourish best } 



1/6 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

(b) Trace the growth of these plants during the 
spring season to flower and fruit so far as possible. 

(c) Contrast these plants with the annuals. Con- 
tinue into the fall. 

3. The orchard mid bush fruits, (a) Peaches and 
plum trees. Planting and raising of seedlings. Buds 
and blossoms. Frosts. Development of young fruit. 
Visits of insects to flowers. 

(b) Blackberry and raspberry. Propagation. Roots 
and underground stems. Young shoots and old 
stalks.* Blossoming and fruit. Young plants, how 
started. 

{c) Garden weeds. Milkweed. Underground stem. 
Other weeds and their roots. 

References. 

Weeds and How to Kill Them. Farmers' Bul- 
letin, No. 28. 
The Peach-tree Borer. Farmers' Bulletin, No. 80. 
The Nursery Book (Bailey). 
Garden Making (Bailey). 

4. Birds of the orchard and garden, {a) The 
mourning dove; nest. The blue jay; habits, food. 
The humming-bird ; honeysuckle, trumpet-vine, col- 
umbine. Wren, chickadee, bluebird, woodpecker. 
Baltimore oriole ; nest. The scarlet tanager. Yellow 
warbler. Rose-breasted grosbeak. 

{b^ Making of bird-houses for different birds. Bird 
enemies : snakes, cats, and owls. 



ELEMENTARY SCIENCE 1/7 

(c) The insects — plant lice, caterpillars, borers — 
and seeds and fruits devoured by the birds. Quarrels 
among the birds. 

References. 

Animal Memoirs. Part II, Birds (Lockwood). 
Everyday Birds (Torrey). 

Some Common Birds. Farmers' Bulletin, No. 54. 
The Birds and I. Cornell Teachers' Leaflets, 
No. 10 (Bailey). 

5. Shade trees, (a) The maple. Early buds, blos- 
soms, winged seeds, and leaves. Flow of sap. Sugar- 
making. 

(d) The oak. Long-hanging catkins, small green 
buds of pistillate flowers. Growth of the acorns. 
Sprouting of old acorns in the soil. Leaves. 

(c) The birch. Its peculiar bark. Catkins. 

(d) Catalpa and honey locust. Blossoms and leaves 
of special interest. Study the same trees again in 
the fall. 

References. 

Familiar Trees and their Leaves (Mathews). 
The Common Trees (Stokes). 
Trees of the Northern "United States ( Apgar). 
Guide to the Trees (Lounsberry). 

6. The lawn, {a) Making a lawn. Sowing grass 
seed. Kinds of grasses. Blue grass. Clover. 

{b) Weeds. Dandelion, plantain, wild grasses, crab 
grass, pigeon grass, ragweed, knotweed, chickweed. 

VOL. I — N 



178 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

(c) Watering the lawn. Plenty. The rain. The 
earthworm. 

(d) The mole. Burrowing. Food and habits of 
the mole. Organs. Injury done by moles and means 
of prevention. 

(e) Shrubbery : lilac, snowball, sumach, syringa, 
spirea, bridal-wreath, Japan quince, flowering almond, 
honeysuckle. 

(/) Birds frequenting the lawn. Robin searching 
for earthworm and caterpillars. English sparrow. 
Dandelion heads. 

References. 

Garden Making. Suggestions for Utilizing 

Home Grounds (Bailey). 
The Practical Garden Book (Bailey). 

FALL TERM. FOURTH GRADE 

I. Continue plant studies of spring as follows : (a) 
maple, oak, birch, catalpa. 

{d) Fruit trees and blackberry. 

(c) Roots of dock, dandelion, sweet-clover, etc. 

(d) Garden vegetables. 

References. 

The Vegetable Garden. Farmers' Bulletin, No. 

94. 
Guide to the Trees (Lounsberry). 
Stories of the Trees (Mrs. Dyson). 
The Common Trees (Stokes). 



ELEMENTARY SCIENCE I^Q 

2. The corn plant (review previous studies), {a) 
Full stalk of field corn for study. Visit garden and 
corn-fields in September. The nodes and internodes 
on the stalk. Arrangement and uses of blades. The 
ear and its stalk. Arrangement of ears. Silk and 
tassel. Roots and the cultivation of corn. Soils and 
productiveness. The corn-worm; chinch-bug. Ex- 
periments in cultivating the corn plant. Rust and 
the effects of weather. History of corn plant among 
Indians and whites. Kinds of corn in common use. 

(yb) Grasses: timothy, blue grass. Resemblances 
to corn. 

{c) Grains : wheat, oats, rye, barley. 

References. 

Corn Plants, their Uses and Ways (Sargent). 
Principal Insect Enemies of Growing Wheat. 

Farmers' Bulletin, No. 132. 
Agriculture for Beginners (Burkett, Storms, and 

Hill). 

3. Weeds of garden and field, {a) Milkweed. Pods 
and seeds. Seed dispersal. 

{b) Butter print (velvetweed) ; flowering and seed. 
Amarinth (pigweed). 

{c) Cocklebur; vigor of the plant; seed produc- 
tion. Lamb's-quarters. 

{d) Ragweed and purslane. 

{e) Fox-tail grass ; quick (quack) grass. 

(/) Burdock ; mullein in meadows and pastures. 



l80 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

(^) Bindweed or wild morning-glory. Difficulties 
in ridding fields of weeds because of abundance of 
seeds, scattering and distribution of seeds, tough 
hardy plants and roots. 

(/?) Birds as seed destroyers. 

References. 

Weeds and How to Kill Them. Farmers' 

Bulletin, No. 28. 
Nature's Garden (Blanchan). 
The Children's Garden (Bailey). Cornell 

Teachers' Leaflets. 
Seed Dispersal (Beal). 
4. Kinds of rocks, {a) Pebbles from the stream. 
History of the pebble. The boulder. 

{U) Limestone. Marble. Fossils. Coral. Sand- 
stone. Rindstone. Stratified rock. 

{c) Quartz. Granite. Igneous rocks. Lava. 
Clays. 

id) Making of concrete walks. 
{e) The decay of stones by weathering. Founda- 
tions of buildings. Monuments. Experiments with 
acids on stones. Formation of soils from rock decay. 
Rich and poor soils. 

(/) Collections of specimens and grouping. 

References. 

How to Read a Pebble (Charles). 

Town Geology (Kingsley). 

About Pebbles (Hyatt). 

Common Minerals and Rocks (Crosby). 



ELEMENTARY SCIENCE l8l 

5. Common stars and constellations. (a) Big 
dipper and north star. The stars as guides to sailors 
and travellers. 

{b) Orion, Cassiopeia. The dog star. Pleiades. 
The apparent movement of the constellations at 
night. 

{c) The planets. Jupiter. Venus. Changing 
position. 

(d) The moon and its changes. Observation of 
the cycle of four weeks. 

(e) The changes of position of the constellations 
with the seasons. 

References. 

Astronomy by Observation (Bowen). 
The Story of the Stars (Chambers). 
Unography. The Constellations Visible in the 

United States (Young). 
Starland (Ball). 
Familiar Talks on Astronomy (Parker). 

6. The larger birds, (a) Owl, food, eyes, claws, 
night habits. Relation to other birds and animals. 

{b) Hawk. Kinds of hawks and their prey; 
chicken hawks; fishhawks. 

(c) The eagle. Its nesting places. Its power of 
flight and strength. Food. The eagle as a national 
emblem. 

(d) The buzzard. A scavenger. Laws protect- 
ing it. 



1 82 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

References. 

Citizen Bird (Wright and Coues). 
The First Book of Birds (Miller). 
Neighbors with Wings and Fins (Johonnot). 
Birds of the United States (Apgar). 

7. Cleanliness in kitchen, (a) A model kitchen 
and pantry. The chemistry of cleaning. Utensils. 
Solvents of grease. 

{b) Flies. Means of ridding the kitchen of them, 
— screens, poison paper, etc. The breeding places. 
Cleanliness in back yard. Danger of flies in dining 
room and kitchen. Their feet as means of carrying 
germs. 

(c) The sink. Construction and how kept clean. 
Soap, sapoHo. The trap and its uses. Disinfectants. 
How used. 

(d) The mould on bread and fruit. 

{e) Soap. The uses of soap. The making of 
soap. Its ingredients. 

References. 

The Chemistry of Cleaning and Cooking 

(Richards and Elliott). 
Handbook of Household Science (Youmans). 
Domestic Science in Elementary Schools 

(Wilson). 

WINTER TERM. — FOURTH GRADE 

I. Common tools and inventions, (a) The crow- 
bar. The lever and its uses. 



ELEMENTARY SCIENCE 1 83 

{b) The plane. Planing machines, machines for 
planing wood and iron. 

{c) The screw. The jack-screw, various uses. 
Work bench. 

{d) The wheel and axle. Axle grease and friction. 

{e) Rope and pulley. Uses in barns and ware- 
houses. 

(/) The steel in edged tools. Grindstone. Ideas 
involved in chest of tools. 

{g) The life preserver. Materials. Specific 
gravity of water, wood, cork, etc. 

{h) The derrick and its construction and use. Ob- 
serve in quarries and shops. 

{i) The turning lathe and its uses. 

References. 

Text-books in Physics. 
Experimental Science (Hopkins). 

2. Water in its various forms and uses, {a) Uses 
of common water to plants, animals, and man. 

{b) Steam and its nature. Uses. Steam for power, 
cooking, heating, etc. Evaporation. 

{c) Ice. Effects of freezing. Uses of ice. Snow, 
sleet. 

{d) Water as a solvent. 

(e) Sources of pure drinking water. Causes of im- 
purity and disease. Filtering ; . distilling. 

(/) Mineral springs. Rivers. The ocean. 

{g) Water vapor in the air. Rain, snow, etc. 



184 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

References. 

Popular Readings in Science (Gall and Robert- 
son). 
On Forms of Water (Tyndall). 
Municipal Engineering and Sanitation (Baker). 

3. The skin and its tises to the body, (a) Structure 
and parts of the skin. The pores. Perspiration. 

{b) Keeping the pores open by exercise, by rubbing. 
{c) Bathing. The office of the skin. Effects of 
cold and hot bathing. 

{d) Sudden changes. Colds and catarrhs. 

References. 

Our Bodies and How We Live (Blaisdell). 
Graded Lessons in Hygiene (Krohn). 
Text-books in Physiology and Hygiene. 

4. The metals, {a) The common metals. Collect 
specimens of metals and crude ores. 

{b) Lead. Melting and moulding of lead. Its 
various uses due to its qualities. Lead poisoning. 

{c) Iron and its qualities. Reduction of ores. 
Steel and its qualities. The simple magnet. Modes 
of making steel. 

id) Gold and silver. Smelting of ores. Use of 
quicksilver. Value of chemistry in the reduction of 
ores. 

{e) Copper. Tin and zinc. 

(/) Aluminum. Its source from clay and uses. 



ELEMENTARY SCIENCE 1 85 

References. 

Economic Geology of the United States (Tarr). 
Text-book of Mineralogy (Dana). 

5. Trees in zvinter. {a) Effects of cold upon trees. 
Barren appearance. Frost in the fall, nipping and 
shrivelling some leaves, as catalpa. Killing of the 
long, tender shoots of the willow, box elder, and other 
trees by cold. Kilhng of fruit trees and even forest 
trees by extreme cold. The breaking of boughs by 
sleet and snow. The uprooting of trees by storms. 

{b) The buds in winter time. The buds wrapped 
to protect against sudden changes. 

{c) Preparation of the buds in February and March 
for coming spring. The sap in trees in spring. 

References. 

How Trees Look in Winter (Bailey). Cornell 

Teachers' Leaflets, No. 12. 
First Book of Forestry (Roth). 
Hutchinson's Study of Trees in Winter. 

6. Budding mtd grafting of fndt trees, {a) Study 
of twigs to note yearly growth. Leaf buds. Apple, 
pear, peach. 

{b) Difference between seedlings and grafted or 
budded fruits. The process of grafting and budding 
as seen in a nursery. 

{c) New varieties of fruit obtained from seedlings. 
The development of choice varieties by selection and 
cultivation. 



1 86 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

References. 

The Apple and How to Grow it. Farmers' 

Bulletin, No. 113. 
Nature Study and Life (Hodge). 
The Nursery Book (Bailey). 

7. Temperance in eating afid drinking, (a) Health- 
ful foods and moderation in eating. 
(J?) Bad effects of alcoholic drinks. 
{/) The uses of milk. 
{d) Tea and coffee. 

References. 

Applied Physiology (Overton). 
How to Keep Well (Blaisdell). 
Physiology and Hygiene (Hutchinson). 

SPRING TERM. FOURTH GRADE 

I. Wild spring flowers in the woods, {a) A cal- 
endar of the spring flowers. Time and place of first 
appearance. 

{p) Spring beauty, water leaf violets, mandrake, 
Solomon's seal, trillium, the ferns, wild geranium. 
Dependence of forest plants on shade and protection 
of trees. 

ic) Transfer of plants to the school and home 
garden. Soils suited to various plants. Flower gar- 
den. Leaf mould and soil. 

{d^ Care against waste and destruction of wild 
plants. 



ELEMENTARY SCIENCE 1 87 

References. 

Nature Study by Months (Boyden). 

2. Tree study in early spring {April), (a) Excur- 
sions into the woods. Recognition of trees by size, 
outline, framework, bark, and buds. Colors and 
marking of stems. Size of buds on hickory, cotton- 
wood, elm, maple, etc. 

{b) Collection of specimens of buds, bark, and of 
sections of wood. 

{c) Drawings of framework and branching of 
trees. 

References. 

How Trees Look in Winter. Cornell Teachers' 

Leaflets, No. 12. 
Hutchinson's Study of Trees in Winter. 

3. Tke tame duck and goose, (a) The duck pond. 
Swimming and diving of the ducks. The uses of their 
feet, bill, feathers, eyes. The waddHng of ducks on 
land. Food and care of ducks in winter. Nesting 
places and hatching. Young ducks. Value of ducks 
as poultry. 

{h) The goose. Feeding- in the meadows and in 
water. Size and value of the eggs. Use of the 
feathers. Compare with the duck. Compare with 
the chicken. 

References. 

Ducks and Geese. Farmers' Bulletin, No. 64. 



1 88 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

4. Poisonous plants in the woods, {a) Kinds of 
poisonous plants in the woods : poison ivy, poison 
oak, poison hemlock, poison sumach. The effect of 
this poisoning upon the skin and mode of treatment. 

{b) Mushroom. Difficulty of distinguishing be- 
tween the edible and poisonous kinds. 
(c) Choke-cherry, buckeye, wild parsnip. 
{d) Nettles, smartweed. 

References. 

Thirty Poisonous Plants. Farmers' Bulletin, 

No. d>6. 
Nature Study and Life (Hodge). 
Mushrooms (Gibson). 

5. The care of chickens in spring i^y children), {a) 
Observe and care for hens and chickens in spring- 
time. Their enjoyment of the warm spring sun. 
The dust bath. Crowing, cackling. Hunting for 
worms and insects in the yard and in the fresh- 
ploughed garden. The nesting and setting of hens. 
Time needed for hatching. Hatching out of chicks. 
The chicken-coop. Care and protection of the 
mother hen for her chicks. Scratching for food. 
Danger to chicks from rats, hawks, cats, etc. Feed- 
ing the hen and young chicks. Water. Rainy 
weather. Review of feet, bill, feathers, crop, giz- 
zard, wings. 

{U) The pigeons and the pigeon-house. Cooing. 
Hatching and feeding of young. The food, flight, 
and habits of pigeons. 



ELEMENTARY SCIENCE 1 89 

References. 

Fowls : Care and Feeding. Farmers' Bulletin, 

No. 41. 
Standard Varieties of Chickens. Farmers' 

Bulletin, No. 51. 
Squab Raising. Farmers' Bulletin, No. 177. 

6. The meadow flowers, (a) The grasses : timo- 
thy, blue grass. The blossom and seeds. Their 
value to farmers and for lawns. The white and red 
clover. Roots of clover and value to the soil. Bees 
and honey in clover. 

{b) The meadow rue, primrose, fleabane, meadow 
lily, purple cone flower, buttercup, marsh marigold. 

{c) Wild rose ; study of the blossom ; compare with 
cultivated roses. 

References. 

The Corn Plants : their Uses and Ways of Life 

(Sargent). 
Ten New England Blossoms (Weed). 

7. A clean cellar, {a) The proper drainage of the 
cellar and cellar walls. Cementing walls. Order- 
liness. 

{U) Cement floors. Washing and cleaning and 
drainage of floors. 

ic) Vegetable cellar. Decaying fruits and vege- 
tables. 

(^) The laundry tubs and wash water. 

{e) Ventilation and drying out of cellar at intervals. 



190 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

(/) Dust, paper, rags, and rubbish. Ashes, coal- 
dust. 

(^) Rats and mice ; traps. 

(Ji) Whitewash and disinfectants. 

A full list of books for reference both by pupils 
and teachers is given in the " Special Method in 
Elementary Science." 



ARITHMETIC 

In the following course of study, on the basis of 
previous discussions, in the " Special Method in Arith- 
metic," the controlling ideas in the selection and 
arrangement of topics may be briefly stated thus : — 

1. Regular number study is omitted from the first 
school year, there being an incidental cultivation of 
number ideas in connection with class and school 
management and other studies and games. 

2. Emphasis is placed upon illustrative devices 
and measurement with standard units in the intro- 
ductory treatment of all topics. 

3. Oral work is made very prominent throughout 
the whole course. 

4. The course of study is much simplified (a) by 
the omission of obsolete topics and those not needed 
in modern life; (^) by getting rid of over-dif^cult 
and complicated problems in all subjects. 

5. Constant and thorough reviews are aimed at, 
and attention is called repeatedly to the inner con- 
nection, the underlying continuity, based upon simi- 
lar ideas and processes, in the leading topics of 
arithmetic. 

191 



192 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

6. Clear and correct language and accurate writ- 
ten forms of operation are steadily urged and pro- 
vided for; but elaborate formal analyses are to 
be avoidedo The necessary simple definitions are 
illustrated and memorized. 

7. Many important topics of geography, science, 
and history require arithmetical interpretation. The 
regular quantitative study of these topics is included 
in the course. 

8. The natural overlapping of algebra and geome- 
try upon arithmetic is recognized and made use of 
only so far as it aids the arithmetical purpose. 

9. Thorough mastery of the elementary processes 
of arithmetic is the fundamental requirement, and 
the application of these processes to the whole range 
of knowledge as it gradually comes into view gives 
the function of arithmetic in the entire school course. 

FIRST GRADE. INCIDENTAL NUMBER WORK 

In our course of study we have made no provision 
for regular number work in the first school year. 
Our presumption is that it is better for children of 
this age to gather number experience incidentally 
from home and school employments. The regular 
and systematic drill on number combinations in the 
first year seems to us premature, and the time thus 
spent can be better employed in widening a child's 
experiences in nature and in human affairs. With 
this accumulation of experiences, and with the 



ARITHMETIC 193 

greater maturity, children may grapple with num- 
ber more effectively the second year. 

The recent widening of the activities of primary 
children into nature study, school games, literature, 
drawing, and constructive arts gives a much richer 
number experience in the first year. 

By incidental number work it is meant that where 
quantitative relations are present, enough attention 
shall be given to them to make the ideas clear. 
This is desirable even from the standpoint of nature 
study, of stories, and of constructive exercises, etc. 
But this can be easily overdone. It is not our aim to 
make construction or weather study merely a vehicle 
for bringing out number relations. The idea is to let 
number ideas grow naturally, and not to force them. 

The following outline indicates a few of the in- 
stances where number appears and can receive this 
incidental attention : — 

1. The number of children in the school and in 
different classes. The relative number of boys and 
girls. The school enrolment and number in attend- 
ance. Absences and tardiness. 

2. Distributing and collecting materials for class 
use, as pencils, books, pens, blotters. A monitor for 
each row can report the number needed for use in 
his row. 

3. Numbering of children at the board or at 
the seats. Number of seats in each row or of 
places at the blackboard. 

VOLo I — O 



194 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

4. Observe and read the paging of the primer 
and first reader. Notice number symbols wher- 
ever used in any of the studies. 

5. In connection with weather study, note clear 
and cloudy days with colored circles, and work out 
the record for the week and month. Make a dia- 
gram of the thermometer on the board and on 
paper, and read the markings. 

6. In making the clock face, reckon up the hours 
and minutes. Number of days in the week and 
month. 

7. In the observation of plants and animals, num- 
ber facts are often of interest, as the number of 
seeds in pods or parts in flowers, of legs, wings, 
and other organs in animals. 

8. Measuring inches with the foot-rule in con- 
structing seed boxes, play and doll houses, enve- 
lopes, and in paper folding, cardboard work, etc. 

9. Games which involve counting, such as ten« 
pins, marbles, dominos, card games, and any game 
where a score is kept. 

10. Measuring the size of children, calculating 
ages of children, years and months. 

11. Children take pleasure in counting by I's, 2's, 
lo's, and 5's, and occasionally attention should be 
given it. 

12. There are many cases where the fractions, 
halves, thirds, quarters, are used and may require 
explanation and illustration. 



ARITHMETIC 195 

13. Even fables, fairy tales, and myths often bring 
out number facts. 

Professor N. D. Gilbert has worked out more 
fully this idea under the head of Related Number 
Work, upon which the above outline is largely 
based. See catalogue of Northern Illinois State 
Normal School, De Kalb, Illinois, pp. 58 and 59. 

SECOND GRADE 

1. Continuation of the incidental number work of 
the first year, connected with schoolroom manage- 
ment, nature study, manual construction, keeping 
score in games, counting size and age of children, 
distance of walks and journeys, garden making, and 
mathematical games. 

2. Complete study of the number space from i 
to 20 by addition and subtraction. Counting by I's, 
by 2's, by lo's, and by 5's to 100. 

Use common objects about school, home, and 
neighborhood for counting, as window-panes, chairs, 
orchard trees, etc. 

Notice close connection between 5's and lo's, also 
between I's and lo's; e.g. each pair of 5's equals 
one 10, 

The multiplication series should come later in the 
year, after the additions have become familiar. 

3. Build up the different series from i to 10 
with inch cubes, and blocks of all lengths from i 
to 10 in, (parallelepipeds i in. square at the ends) 



196 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 



For example, work out the series based on the 
number 6, thus : — 



1 + 5 = 6 

2 + 4 = 6 

3 + 3 = 6 



4 + 2 = 6 

5 + 1 = 6 



Tear down the blocks, also giving the correspond- 
ing subtraction series : — 



6-1 = 5 
6—2 = 4 

6-3 = 3 



6 — 4 = 2 
6 — 5 = 1 
6-6 = 



Form similar series with 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, and 9. The 
individual additions and subtractions can be drilled 
upon in irregular order after the series have been 
formed and learned. 

The blocks may be used also (the 2-in., the 3-in,, 
etc.) in building by 2's, 3's, 4's, etc., thus leading up 
to the multiplication table. For the full treatment 
of the number 7, see chapter of Illustrative Lessons 
in "Special Method in Arithmetic." 

4. In board work by teacher and pupils the num- 
ber picture, the name, and the figure (symbol) should 
be written in the same line, as follows, so as to show 

the " one-to-one correspondence " of these forms of 

• • • 
expression; e.g. ' . *, five, 5. . . ., nine, 9. 



ARITHMETIC 197 

The number pictures may also be used at first by 
the children in writing at the board ; 
as, . . 4- . ° = . . , °» .'. — . — <.% eic. 

These exercises give good seat and board work for 
a short time. Squares, lines, and circles can be used 
also for number pictures. 

With spHnts or toothpicks let the children lay out 
the simple geometric forms, as triangles, squares, and 
rectangles. Also cut out these forms from paper or 
cardboard and notice the number and relation of 
sides. Count the faces of cubes and blocks and base 
simple problems upon the counting of faces, edges, 
and corners. 

5. Make use of the standard units of compound 
numbers ; as pint, quart, gallon, for measuring liquids ; 
foot and yard measurements to twenty feet; dime, 
cent, and dollar, for measuring values. 

Use simple fractions in working with these units ; 
as, i (pint and quart), ^ (quart and gallon), ^ (foot 
and yard), -^q (cent and dime). 

Study of the clock face, and counting by 5's, lo's, 
15's, and 30's. 

6. Write and use the Arabic figures as they are 
needed in expressing operations at the board or on 
paper. Use the signs +,-,=, X, and -f- as clear 
occasion for their use arises. 

Learn the Roman numerals to XII, so as to read 
the time on the clock face. 

7. As the mind puts number relations into objects 



198 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

in preference to drawing them from objects, the 
abstract conception of number develops gradually. 
In second grade, after the preliminary object work 
and measurements have laid the basis for clear 
number ideas, there can be much quick oral work 
in adding and subtracting of pure numbers, as 
34-4=? But whenever the number relations seem 
blurred, there should be a quick and constant resort 
to illustrative materials. 

8. Every primary school should be well equipped 
with mathematical apparatus, such as the standard 
units of liquid and dry measure, quart, pint, and 
gallon, peck and bushel; also the foot and 
yardstick, simple scales, clock face, splints or 
toothpicks, abacus, measured blocks (a full set 
of 100 cubic inches, ten blocks of each length, 
2 in., 3 in., 4 in., 5 in., 6 in., 7 in., 8 in., 9 in., 
and 10 in.), real or imitation money, good black- 
boards. 

These artificial units are not designed to take 
the place of other familiar objects, nor is it at 
all desirable to overload the children with a multi- 
plicity of such materials. But different materials 
are used for different purposes and there should 
be a sufficient variety of constructive measurements 
so as to meet the requirements of early number 
work. The standard measures are the best units of 
measurement. 



ARITHMETIC 199 

ADDITIONAL EXPLANATORY REMARKS 

1. In both first and second grade children should 
be allowed full physical activity in measuring with 
standard units. 

Let them also step off distances, play counting 
games, build with measured blocks, make number 
pictures at the board or on paper, measure for paper 
folding and cutting, and write out short statements 
with figures and symbols. 

The abacus or number frame and the splints should 
be handled by the children. 

The purpose of all this is to see that children by 
the aid of sense perception and motor activity image 
clearly the objects and groups whose measurements 
suggest number relations. 

2. Let correct language be used in describing 
number operations. Extreme formality in language 
should give way to brevity and accuracy in describ- 
ing what is already clearly grasped. Over-formality 
not only gives an unnecessary mental strain but also 
cultivates a memory of words and phrases that often 
deceives with an appearance of knowledge. 

3. In early number work there should be an em- 
phasis of counting and of addition and subtraction 
series formed by counting. 

The addition and subtraction should precede by 
some interval the multiplication and division series. 
Let the notions of multiplication and division grow 



200 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

and ripen gradually. It is easy to carry the memory 
process beyond the ideas of the children. 

THIRD GRADE 

1. Complete review and mastery of the number 
space from i to 20, including multiplication and 
division. 

In treating numbers from i to 20, form addition 
and subtraction series as follows : — 

7 7 7 7 7 7 7 and other similar 

4 5 6 7 8 910 additions. 

II 12 13 14 15 16 17 

18 17 16 15 14 13 12 and similar 

5 S S S S S S subtractions. 

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 

Follow these with drills in broken series and 
mixed combinations. 

2. Count to 100 by 2's, 4's, 8's, by 3's, 6's, 9's, 
and by 7's. Notice the similarity of corresponding 
series, as 2's, 4's, and 8's; 3's, 6's, and 9's. 

2's, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 2^, 38, 40 

4's, 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 28, 32, 36, 40 
8's, 8, 16, 24, 32, 40 

3's, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30, 2,1,^ 36, 39, 42, 45, 48, 51, 54 
6's, 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36, 42, 48, 54 

9's, 9> 18, 27, 36, 45, 54 



ARITHMETIC 201 

See complete treatment of 2's and 4's in the chap- 
ter of Illustrative Lessons in " Special Method in 
Arithmetic." 

Follow these series with the multiplication tables 
in the same easy order, 5's, 2's, 4's, 8's, 3's, 6's, 9's, 
and 7's. Then break up the multiplication tables 
and drill in irregular order. 

At first and where necessary illustrate with abacus 
and splints. 

3. In the number space between i and 100 form 
such series as the following : — 



8 


18 


28 


38 


48 


58 


6S 


7^ 


^^ 


98 


4 


4 


4 


4 


4 


4 


4 


4 


4 


4 


4 


14 


24 


34 


44 


54 


64 


74 


84 


94 



Form similar addition series. 

Drill upon many such addition and subtraction 
series. 

4. Teach and illustrate the decimal scale by the 
use of splints or toothpicks, forming bundles of lo's, 
lOo's, bound with rubber bands. See chapter of 
Illustrative Lessons in " Special Method in Arith- 
metic " for a full treatment of the decimal scale. 

Illustrate addition and subtraction of three-place 
numbers by breaking up these bundles. Also multi- 
plication and division. The abacus or number frame 
may also assist to explain the decimal scale. Pen- 
nies, dimes, and dollars will also help to illustrate 



202 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

the same and give an easy transition to the larger 
numbers. 

5. Train children in reading and writing numbers 
in units' and thousands' period, as 425,048, and 
607,040, etc. Require carefulness in the use 
of correct language and neatness in board and 
paper work, making figures large and plain. 
See that children image the numbers clearly 
before writing, and memorize the number of each 
order. 

6. Compound Numbers. 

Review and use the standard units of the second 
year. Introduce the pounds ounce^ and ton (small 
scales); quart and peck of dry measure (keep 
these measures at hand); minute^ hour, day, and 
month (clock face and calendar) ; square inch, square 
foot, acre, and square m,ile. Measure often with 
available standard units. Measure and work out 
the areas of rectangles, rooms, plots of ground, city 
lots, gardens. Use the foot-rule marked with inches. 
Get the fractional parts of the foot, as \, \, \, \, f , 
f, etc. 

7. Teach addition and subtraction of two- and 
three-place numbers. First, illustrate with concrete 
examples. After preliminary illustrative work, use 
the following for drill exercises : — 

{a) Addition : 634 375 Subtraction : 794 937 

225 423 462 624 



ARITHMETIC 203 

{b) Addition: 537 928 Subtraction: 637 829 

264 469 486 764 



8. Give daily short oral drills to secure accuracy 
and speed in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and 
division. Do not be too quick, but allow slower chil- 
dren time to think. 

9. In written exercises for board and seat work 
be strictly accurate in the use of signs of opera- 
tion, e.g. 6 + 4x3=18, not 30 ; 8-3x2 = 2, not 
10. Errors at this point are very common, both with 
teachers and pupils. 

10. Use the text-book for drill exercises in abstract 
number work in addition, subtraction, multiplication, 
and division, at the seat and at the blackboard. 

11. The home geography of this year gives great 
variety of topics for applied number measurements, 
etc., e.g. house building, in measuring basement exca- 
vations, rooms, quantities of shingles, boards, brick, 
stone, sand, nails, paint, etc. 

The Garden. — yiQdismmg of spaces, planting of 
vegetables, yield per acre, price of vegetables, fruit, 
grain, corn, hay, etc. 

The Dairy. — ButtQY, cheese, milk, cost of keep- 
ing horses and cows. 

Local Map-making. — Familiar distances measured, 
making a map to a scale with foot-rule. 

Bakery. — Bread and cakes. Cost of flour per 



204 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

barrel, number of loaves per barrel, and price. 
Measurements in cooking; size and capacity of 
baker's oven. 

Height of hills, towers, steeples, public buildings, 
cost of the same. 

Transportation. — Drays, wagons and their ca- 
pacity, wood, coal, lumber, stone, and sand hauled in 
wagons. Capacity of cars and boats in tons, cattle, 
hogs, sheep, etc. 

Grocery Store. — Selling price of vegetables, canned 
fruits, sugar, coffee, etc. The family account at the 
grocery store furnishes a variety of good problems. 
See chapter of Illustrative Lessons. 

Factories, local shops, and industries offer many 
excellent practical problems, which throw light upon 
these occupations. 

12. The Science Lessons. 

Reading of thermometer, the sun-dial ; length of 
day and night, variations in the seasons. Seed pro- 
duction in pods ; age and size of annuals, perennials, 
and trees. Regular number of certain parts and 
organs in plants and animals, as petals, leaves, legs, 
feathers, fins, etc. 

13. Number Games. 

Tenpins, marbles, dominos, card games, arith- 
.etical games, counting-out games. The score at 
tennis, baseball, golf, and other games. 

Distances run or jumped in field-day sports. 
Races and speed. 



ARITHMETIC 205 

FOURTH GRADE 

1. Review of multiplication tables, also addition 
and subtraction tables by frequent oral drills. 

2. Multiplication of two-place numbers by one- 
place numbers. 

(a) 43 23 22 

^ __3 J; 

86 69 SS 

{b) 56 24 76 

3 5 8 

168 120 608 

Multiplication with larger numbers. 

25 67 96 428 
32 J2 ^ 623 

50 134 672 1284 
75 201 yes 856 

800 2144 8352 2568 



266,644 

Review the decimal scale and illustrate, if neces-^ 
sary, with fuller analytic treatment of the process;/^ 
e.g, 32 X 25 = 2 X 25 + 30 X 25 = 50 + 750= 800. 

3. Compound Numbers. 

Table of linear measure (use yardstick and tape 
line in frequent measurements). 

Table of avoirdupois weight (examine and test 
larger scales). 



206 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

Table of liquid measure (barrel, cask, hogshead). 

Table of square measure (measuring and reckon- 
ing of areas of fields, surfaces, yards, etc.). 

Dry measure (measurement of apples, potatoes, 
etc.). (Now often measured by weight.) 

Table of United States money (reading and 
writing). 

A brief historical study of the origin and use of 
the standard units, as yard, pound, gallon, and 
dollar, is instructive (see cyclopaedias). 

4. Short Division. 



(^) 3)_9 


2)14 


5)20 


6)18 


3 


7 


4 


3 


ip) 4)19 


5)18 


9)16 


6)32 


4—3 


3 — 3 


1 — 7 


5—2 


{c) 2)64 


3)96 


4)84 


5)1050 


32 


32 


21 


210 


{d) 5)95 


4)76 


6)72 


8)96 


19 


19 


12 


12 


{e) 4)824 


5)725 


8)744 


7)6^ 


206 


145 


93 


98 



5. Fractions. 

Simple fractions expressing the relation of stand- 
ard units, as inch to foot, ounce to pound, pounds 
to ton. 

By paper folding show that |- = |, i = f> i = f) 
\ — ^2^, etc. Show by paper folding that f and | 
can be changed to twelfths and added. 



ARITHMETIC 



207 



2. 
3' 



1 
6* 



96 = 1 



of 



Explain the reduction of fractions to lower terms 

and vice versa. 

In United States money notice the fractional 

parts of one dollar, as |, \, \, 20"' 3' 1 
16 = 1 of what? 750 = i of what? 

what ? 

6. Reading and writing of numbers to 1,000,000,- 
000. Learn well the periods and orders. 

Image clearly the numbers before writing. Give 
vigorous class drills at the board in writing numbers. 

7. Long Division, 
(a) Show the transition from 

long division, e.g. : — 
65 
5)32.5 
30 



25 



short division to 

16446 
4)65784 

4 



25 
24- 



17' 
16 

16 



24 
24 



(b) Long division by 12, 13, I4, i5, etc., to 20. 

(c) Division by two- and three-place numbers. 
By 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 3i» 4i» 39> 49; 
by 36, 73, S6, 94, 324, S60, 940, etc. 



208 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

See chapter on Method in Intermediate Grades, in 
"Special Method in Arithmetic," for a fuller treat- 
ment of long division. 

Discriminate between measurement and partition ; 
e.g. How many yards in 630 ft. ? What is \ of 
;^25o? Show that in measurement the divisor and 
dividend are of the same denomination, but in parti- 
tion the divisor is abstract. Work out many illustra- 
tions of the same. 

8. Provide 100 or more inch cubes. Build up 
cubes and rectangular solids, and let the children 
work out mentally the solid contents and the 
superficial areas. 

9. Daily oral work in the review of tables, 
changing to higher or lower units of compound 
numbers. Addition and subtraction of simple frac- 
tions by changing to a common denominator. 

10. Teach the meaning and use of minuend, sub- 
trahend, multiplicand, multiplier, product, dividend, 
quotient. Make definitions simple. 

11. Avoid common errors, such as: — 

;?I5 -^ 5 = ;^3. 25 ft. X 3 ft. = 75 sq. ft. 

Multiplying the length by the breadth does not 
give the area. Multiplying together length, breadth, 
and height does not give the solid contents. Give 
the correct analysis of these processes ; e. g. if a 
floor is 16 ft. long by 14 ft. wide, how many square 
feet in it } 

If the floor were 16 ft. long and i ft. wide, it 



ARITHMETIC 209 

would evidently contain i6 sq. ft, but since it is 
1 6 ft. long and 14 ft. wide, it contains 14 rows of such 
square feet, or 14 x 16 sq. ft., which equal 224 
sq. ft. 

12. Processes applied to other studies and to 
practical affairs. 

(a) Continuation of Home Geography Topics. 

Cost per mile of good country roads ; cost of local 
waterworks and running expense; the heating of 
homes and schoolhouses, expenses for furnaces, coal, 
wood, janitor or engineer. 

The outlay in running a local mill or factory, for 
machinery, wages, insurance, repairs, raw materials, 
and losses. 

Population of the town; school population; num- 
ber of voters. Population of city and country com- 
pared for the county. 

Length of chief railroad lines within the state. 
Time and rate of speed for passenger trains. Cost 
of tickets for certain distances, between cities. 

Trip around the world on the home parallel, mark- 
ing and comparing distances. 

Capital needed in sinking a coal shaft and for 
machinery and labor in operating a coal mine. 

Other similar topics in geography. 

(h) Elementary Science. 

Quantity of weed seeds destroyed by birds. 

Distance to the sun and moon and size of 
each. 

VOL. I — P 



210 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

Diameter and circumference of the earth. 

Power gained by the crowbar, pulley, and rope. 

Power of engines, windmills, and water-wheels. 

Comparative weight and value of different metals. 

Amount of money wasted in alcoholic drinks and 
tobacco. 

The age of plants and trees. 

(c) History. 

Length of chief periods in American history. 
Chief periods of the world's history ; time before 
and since the birth of Christ. Important dates. 

Age of cities and buildings; monuments. 

Age of the oldest citizens; oldest houses in the 
town. Centennial and other celebrations. 



THE HANDBOOK 

The following Handbook was worked out from 
the experiences met in the Practice Department of a 
Normal School. It still retains some of the peculi- 
arities of that environment. 

It is inserted here at the close of the course of 
study because it may be convenient for principals 
and supervisors to have in the hands of all teachers a 
brief summary of leading points, both theoretical and 
practical. These points are daily arising in the 
school, and may be discussed in teachers' meetings 
in connection with other problems of the school 
course. 

A HANDBOOK OF PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS FOR 
SCHOOLROOM WORK 

DISCIPLINE 

1. Few and quiet signals are indicative of strength 
in discipline. 

2. Cultivate firmness and decision with gentleness. 

3. Do not forget and neglect your own require- 
ments. 

4. In cases of difficult management take counsel 
with the principal, but control the room yourself. 

211 



212 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

5. Competing with children in smartness is un- 
worthy of a teacher. 

6. Be not suspicious and hasty in attributing fault 
to a child. 

7. Assume full responsibility for the class in all 
respects. Depend on the critic teacher or principal 
only for outside advice. 

8. In exercising discipline use the direct appeal 
to the principal very seldom. Employ your own tact 
and invention to meet the emergency. Children 
respect a teacher who relies on himself. 

9. Self-reliance can be strengthened by prepara- 
tion, will effort, and experience. 

10. Be fair-minded and just. 

11. Secure the respect of children by honest 
dealing. 

12. Keeping children after school to learn lessons 
as a means of punishment is poor policy. But let 
them do their tasks. 

13. Have pupils pass through the halls quietly, 
promptly, and in line. 

14. Use your eyes. See what is going on in the 
room. 

15. Avoid scolding and censuring in the class and 
before the school. In general reprove privately and 
make it effective. 

16. Do not worry over little noises and disturb- 
ances if the children are working heartily. 



THE HANDBOOK 213 

PLAN AND PREPARATION 

1. On the back of the plan-book write your name, 
the term of the year, grade of the class, and subject 
(for pupil teachers). 

2. In planning a lesson, keep both the children 
and the subject-matter clearly in mind. 

3. Each lesson should have a distinct aim, which 
brings the topics into a natural sequence. 

4. The aim should touch the central point of the 
lesson, approach it from a familiar side, and should 
be simple and concrete in its statement. 

5. A well-planned lesson gives greater freedom for 
happy inspirations of the moment. Abundant and 
clear knowledge of the subject is the teacher's best 
reserve. 

6. Have all apparatus — as maps, charts, blocks, 
pictures, abacus, chalk, board work — ready before 
the recitation begins. 

7. Mental and physical freshness are so important 
as to deserve special precaution. 

8. Learn to make plans which can be carried out. 

9. In case of absence, send written notice in time 
and send also the plan-book so that the substitute 
may know just where to take up the lesson (for pupil 
teachers). 

ASSIGNING LESSONS 

I. To assign a lesson well is a difficult and critical 
task. 



214 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

2. Take sufficient time before the end of the period 
to assign lessons. Five minutes is often insufficient. 

3. The aim and first step are often included in the 
assignment. 

4. Be simple and explicit, avoiding all uncertainty. 

5. Preparation for the assignment is as important 
as for the recitation. 

6. Create an interest in the new lesson by the 
manner of assigning it. 

7. In using reference books do not work at random. 
Point out to the children exactly, by volume and page, 
what they are expected to look for and prepare. 

8. Assign short lessons, but insist on thorough 
mastery. 

9. Call to mind previous topics and principles 
which may be of service in studying the new lesson. 

ART OF QUESTIONING 

1. It is a difficult art, acquired by preparation, 
presence of mind, and afterthought. 

2. Think twice before asking a question. Do not 
vary, modify, and correct questions. 

3. Make one question go as far as possible. Ques- 
tions should produce thoughtfulness and reasoning. 

4. Questions designed to test knowledge acquired 
should not be helps to the pupil. 

5. The honest questions of children should be 
respected. But many children abuse their privilege 
and should be checked. 



THE HANDBOOK 215 

6. General, indefinite questions are often blind. 
Most questions should be specific. 

7. Do not waste time in guessing, in questions 
which children cannot answer. 



SECURING AND HOLDING THE ATTENTION 

1. To strengthen the habit of attentiveness in chil- 
dren should be a fundamental aim of the teacher. 
Teachers are too careless about holding the attention 
of the whole class. 

2. Involuntary attention depends upon interest in 
the subject. Voluntary attention depends, first, 
upon the will of the teacher ; secondly, upon the will 
of the pupil. 

3. The position of teacher and pupils should aid 
attention. 

4. Recess and gymnastic exercises between the 
periods are a direct support to attention. 

5. A pure text-book method is unfavorable to 
attention. 

6. Laxity of attention is a striking weakness of our 
schools. In oral recitations, where no text-book is 
used, everything depends upon attentiveness. The 
habit of inattention, cultivated in the class room, 
repeats and strengthens itself in the home studies of 
children. 

7. Good work of any kind may not be had by 
merely asking for it, but by insistence. 



2l6 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

8. Provide for good variety of work during a 
recitation. 

9. Weak control and weak instruction leave a class 
in the condition of an unstrung violin. No response 
can be elicited. 

INSTRUCTION 

1. The teacher is a guide rather than a lecturer. 

2. Few teachers realize what it is to treat subjects 
concretely and inductively. Most text-books are 
abstract rather than concrete, deductive rather than 
inductive, and teachers must make good these defi- 
ciencies. A teacher should be full of resources, 
devices, and information. Fertility in device, in illus- 
tration, in graphic drawing, should be a professional 
characteristic. From your own resources, add vivid- 
ness and reality to the contents of the text-book. 
Study home surroundings and experience as a means 
of illustration. Have children do the same. 

3. Study the general plan and purpose of your 
text-book. 

4. Loud and persistent talking by a teacher is a 
bad sign. A teacher should be laconic and the 
master of his tongue. The more a teacher is habitu- 
ated to talking, the less the pupils think. 

5. As a rule do not explain what some member of 
the class can explain. 

6. Require pupils usually to reproduce facts and 
explanations given by the teacher. 



THE HANDBOOK 21 7 

7. On the other hand, a teacher should talk to the 
best effect when occasion requires. In the oral pres- 
entation of a new lesson to a class, the teacher should 
cultivate a special skill and vividness in narration and 
description. 

8. Strictly oral lessons in natural science, literature, 
history-stories, and geography require a very clear 
and logical outline of points for each lesson. It 
should be put on the board by the teacher during the 
recitation and each part should be carefully repro- 
duced by the children. The outline should be 
copied also into blank-books in ink, as the basis of 
future reviews. 

10. In general do not tell the class anything which 
is not worth reproducing during the same lesson or 
the next by the children. 

BOARD WORK 

1. There is always a temptation for teachers to be 
hasty and careless in board work done before the 
class. Such work should be plain and neat. Over- 
come the spirit of hurry and flurry. 

2. Keep the boards free from careless and unneces- 
sary marks. Each teacher should leave the boards 
in good shape. 

3. Copying lessons from the board should be 
avoided as much as possible. 

4. Children should be kept strictly independent of 
one another in board work. 



2l8 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

5. Let the board work of pupils be careful and 
thoughtful. Check the habit of erasing and re- 
writing. 

6. One teacher should not monopolize board room 
with written work at the expense of others. 

PERSONAL MANNER 

1. Acquire self-control and confidence. 

2. A sincere and hearty manner is very desirable. 

3. Social tact is all important to a teacher. 

4. Confidence in the pupils and sympathy for them 
encourage like feelings in them. 

5. The easy and unostentatious habits of a gentle- 
man are not acquired in a moment, but by close obser- 
vation, thoughtfulness, and goodness of heart. 

6. Awkward positions and motions should be stu- 
diously avoided. 

7. Some of the best people have the most obnox- 
ious faults and never find them out. Neatness of 
dress, clean teeth, and well-kept hands and finger- 
nails have become standard requirements. 

8. Do not get too close to the children in recita- 
tion work. They will speak, read, etc., with more 
force and independence at a little distance from the 
teacher. Do not fondle older pupils. 

POSITION AND MANNERS OF CHILDREN 

I. Let them sit and stand squarely, and talk clearly 
and forcibly. 



THE HANDBOOK 2ig 

2. The selfish prominence of some children in reci- 
tation should be checked, while the timid ones should 
be encouraged. 

3. Children should be required to show a kindly 
and respectful manner to schoolmates as well as to 
teachers. The behavior of children should be as 
quiet and courteous in school as when visiting or 
receiving friends at home. 

4. The room, desks, and floor should be kept as 
neat and orderly as the best room at home. Be very 
careful to avoid ink stains on desks and floors. 

5. See that children's names are well written in all 
their books. Prevent scribbling in their books. 

6. Scraps of paper should be kept from the floor 
and desks. 

7. Be careful about excusing children from the 
room. Keep a record and report such cases to the 
room-teacher. 

8. Do not waste paper or any materials furnished 
by the school. 

9. Let children keep their hands clean and their 
person neat. 

10. Written papers, handed in to a teacher, should 
be clean, with well-cut edges, and adequate in size for 
good work. 

OBSERVATION AND CRITICISM OF OTHERS* TEACHING 

I. Be able to discover quickly the strong and the 
weak points in others' teaching. Give reasons. 



220 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

2. Find out beforehand the teacher's plan for the 
lesson. 

3. Do not rely chiefly upon memory for the criti- 
cism of a lesson. 

4. Our faults and merits are often seen magnified 
in the teaching of others. The suggestions thus 
derived may be very helpful. 

5. Make your criticisms specific, and base them 
upon established principles. Be able to point out 
clearly the remedy. 

6. Study the chapter on instruction. 

7. Do not write up a great quantity of details, but 
give definite and pointed criticism. 

SELF-CRITICISM 

1. Bad habits or tendencies should be discovered 
and corrected at the beginning of experience in 
teaching. 

2. Severe and effective self-criticism in teaching is 
wisdom. 

3. Do not be offended easily at criticisms. 

4. Do not think too much about yourself while 
teaching, but allow the interest in the lesson to carry 
you along vigorously. 

5. Review your lessons thoughtfully and consider 
where you might have improved the plan or its 
execution. 

6. Be reasonable in acknowledging your mistakes 
to children. 



THE HANDBOOK 221 

OBSERVATION OF CHILDREN 

1. Some children need to be carefully studied by 
the teacher, because of their peculiar disposition. 

2. A knowledge of the home surroundings and 
habits of a child may help the teacher to appreciate 
and sympathize with him. 

3. Personal and kindly conversation with a child 
when school is not in session will often help both 
teacher and pupil. 

4. The practice of making a close study of at least 
one child each term will give the teacher much sug- 
gestion and tact in treating other children. 

5. Be careful to notice whether some children are 
poor of hearing, near-sighted, or weak physically in 
any way. Adapt conditions to such needs. 

6. Observe children on the playground, on excur- 
sions, etc., where they express their disposition and 
their individuality more freely. 

REPORTING CHILDREN 

1 . The study hour is the time when the room-teacher 
can attend to backward and deficient pupils, as well as 
assist all children reasonably in their allotted studies. 

2. Each teacher of a class should daily interview 
those children who are negligent in their work or 
who, for any culpable reason, neglect the full per- 
formance of their duties. 

The class-teacher should also report daily to the 



222 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

room-teacher such special pupils as for neglect of their 
work need special attention during the study hours. 

By looking at the list of names filed on his desk 
daily, the room-teacher may aid greatly in keeping 
each child up to the requirements. 

PROMOTIONS 

1. Pupils in a class, who are manifestly graded too 
high or too low for the class in which they recite, should 
be promptly reported to the critic teacher or principal. 

2. Occasional promotions or reductions, if wisely 
made, have an excellent tonic effect. 

3. A bright child sometimes does poor work in a 
class because the work is too easy for him. Promote 
him and lay heavier burdens upon him. 

4. Consult with parents about promotions and be 
considerate of all the circumstances. 

teachers' responsibility for suggestions in the 

handbook 

1. Pupil teachers should make constant use of the 
Handbook and keep its injunctions and suggestions 
in mind. This is true especially at the beginning of 
the term. 

2. Let practising teachers apply to the critic teachers 
for necessary desk-books, paper, and other materials. 
Report pupils promptly who are not supplied with 
text-books. 



THE HANDBOOK 223 

GENERAL SPIRIT IN A CLASS OR SCHOOLROOM 

1. Let children learn to help each other in a kindly 
spirit. 

2. Incidents in the room give opportunity to apply 
many lessons learned from books. 

HOW TIME IS WASTED 

1. In not having a well-defined plan of work. In 
not keeping clearly fixed goals in mind and pressing 
the work toward their accomplishment. 

2. In lecturing too much about good order, behav- 
ior, rules, etc., and forgetting to execute promptly 
and steadily requirements previously made. 

3. In not planning and executing promptly room 
and class movements. For lack of forethought in 
giving directions children become confused in taking 
places at the board or in passing and collecting ma- 
terials, etc. 

4. When good physical conditions are lacking. 
Time is frequently wasted in trying to teach children 
when they are sleepy, tired, or nervously unstrung. 
Monotony, tediousness, and. too long-continued exer- 
tion waste time. 

5. In not watching the whole class, but confining 
the attention to one, or a few reciting. Part of the 
class is inattentive to board or recitation work so that 
all must be done again for the sake of the delinquents 

6. In scolding children. 



224 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

7. In repeating answers. 

8. In trying to teach the facts of a new lesson 
before the older related experience and knowledge 
have been refreshed. 

9. In too much development work. In trying to 
develop many little things or side issues not essential 
to the main line of thought. In not discriminating 
between facts which need to be presented directly 
by the teacher and inferences. Definite facts and 
conditions must often be directly presented before 
inferences or questions are in place. 

10. In indefinite questions, which lead the children 
to loose guessing. Often the meaning of a word is 
better explained by the teacher. 

11. In trying to force an answer from a child when 
he is manifestly unable, or unwilling to give one. 

12. In waiting too long for the poorest members 
of the class. 

13. In criticising each other's work, children often 
waste time on trivial errors. 

14. The teacher talks and explains too much. 

15. In disputing with pupils. 

16. In loose and unpremeditated assignment of 
lessons. Thus questions, disputes, and explanation 
arise. 

17. Time is wasted during study periods : (i) be- 
cause of lack of a definite program for certain lessons ; 

(2) on account of indefinite and hasty assignments ; 

(3) not keeping an eye on the children while at study. 



THE MANUAL ARTS 

The following course in Manual Arts was worked out by Oscar L. 
McMurry of the Chicago Normal School in conjunction with Frank M. 
McMurry and Charles A. McMurry. A full treatment of this subject for 
the common school will be given in a volume on the Manual Arts which is 
now in preparation by the authors named, and to be published by The Mac- 
millan Company. 

INTRODUCTORY THESES 

In outlining the following course in the Manual 
Arts, the grounds upon which the selection and ar- 
rangement of topics are based may be stated in the 
following theses : — 

I. Manual training has its own thought-content, 
consisting of a distinct body of ideas requiring elabo- 
ration. No other study deals primarily with the class 
of ideas peculiar to the manual arts. This content 
can be analyzed somewhat as follows : — 

In any given unit of construction, as a chair or 
woven fabric, a clear conception must be gained of 
the plan or design of the whole, of the special modes 
of construction or fabrication involved, of the nature 
and adaptation of material to be used, and of the 
necessary tools and their purpose. 

The choice of artistic in preference to inartistic 
forms should be steadily cultivated in pupils' con- 
structions, and this involves a study and discussion 
of standard art-forms and ideas (History of Art and 
Industries). 

VOL. I — Q 225 



226 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

In addition to the above-described body of ideas 
requiring presentation and mastery, direct experience 
with materials and tools in the work of construction 
develops skill and technique. 

The preliminary clarification of ideas, which should 
precede actual construction, will often require a full 
recitation period, and even outside study. Frequently 
a working drawing must be wrought out as a means 
of more clearly grasping and combining the new body 
of ideas. 

2. Each primary industry, such as house-building, 
sewing, pottery, weaving, and bookbinding, contains 
a development of ideas which furnishes the outline 
of topics in that industry. It involves a movement 
from simple, primitive forms of work, to later, more 
complex processes and tools. 

The units of construction incorporating the ideas 
of any craft are real objects of interest and value, as 
a garment, a house, a sled, a rug, a book. They are 
not fragments or mere elements of construction. 

3. In the period of the common school, children 
should gradually gain an acquaintance with ideas of 
design and modes of construction, with materials and 
tools, and should acquire such skill in construction as 
is reasonably within the power of those who are im- 
mature and growing. Expert professional skill and 
perfection of technical workmanship are not control- 
ling aims in the manual work of the common school. 

4. The industries chiefly involved in the manual 



THE MANUAL ARTS 22/ 

training course should be fundamental types of occu- 
pation and of technical art, and as types they sug- 
gest a sharp power of interpretation when applied to 
closely allied industries. 

One purpose of manual training is to equip chil- 
dren with the controlling ideas and experiences of 
the primary industrial arts, and to make them a valu- 
able means of interpreting industrial and social life. 

Manual training serves, therefore, to instruct and 
train young minds practically and intimately with the 
fundamental arts of life. 

5. Manual training can open up only a few of the 
main lines of construction and must give its chief 
attention to this prescribed work. 

The wider application of constructive' ideas and 
processes lies in the field of other studies, as geog- 
raphy, history, science, literature, and the home. 

The manual arts, having a distinct and important 
field of their own to cultivate, only incidentally and 
indirectly can look after constructions needed in other 
studies. 

But the thought series worked out in the manual 
arts runs parallel to the most important topics in 
history, geography, and applied science. In other 
words, there is a deep underlying connection and paral- 
lelism of ideas in these separate branches of study. 

6. The series of constructions proposed in the 
manual arts course is a direct response to the strong 
impulse toward motor activity which is everywhere 



228 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

manifest in children. It is designed to give natural 
expression to a great variety of motor impulses and 
to make this active, expressive development coinci- 
dent with the expansion of the whole physical and 
mental life. This perpetual interaction of the physi- 
cal and mental can be well provided through a wisely 
selected course in the manual arts. 

7. The manual arts outlined for the schools natu- 
rally involve the cultivation of the art sense. The 
natural development of every craft is toward better, 
choicer art-forms. In children also the crude art 
sense is strongly in evidence, and requires only guid- 
ance and suitable means of cultivation. In each 
school handicraft there should be a conscious selec- 
tion of the better art-forms in construction. Weak 
and inartistic forms of construction abound and 
should be avoided. 

This cultivation of the art sense in constructive 
exercises is also in harmony with the rapidly growing 
demand for real art-forms in all the industries. 

The incorporation of the art impulse into all the 
manual arts of the school, lifts this subject to a high 
plane and makes it coordinate with literature, history, 
and science as a liberal study. 

The following outline of work in the Manual Arts 
is designed to give a free and abundant outlet to the 
work impulses and motor activities of children. 

In primary and intermediate grades some of the 



THE MANUAL ARTS 229 

constructions are representative in character, allowing 
of the use of simple material, as of paper or cardboard 
instead of wood in house building. In other cases 
the ordinary materials, tools, and processes are em- 
ployed, as in weaving, sewing, and book making. 

These activities fall naturally in primary grades 
into rudimentary forms of certain crafts or trades, 
each of which may require several kinds of mate- 
rials, a variety of tools, and a series of processes. 

By directing the efforts of children along the lines 
of typical and universal trades or handicrafts, we 
are giving them a practical introduction (i) to 
present-day processes and industries as they are ; 
(2) to the historical evolution of trades from primi- 
tive conditions so far as this suits the purposes of 
education; (3) to a far better appreciation of the 
industries treated in geography, history, and other 
studies; (4) to a somewhat general and versatile 
experience with skilled crafts as a broad prelimi- 
nary training for industrial life; (5) to those units 
of constructive effort which the various handicrafts 
set up, such as houses, tables, dresses, books, baskets, 
mats, hammocks, etc. Such wholes are the natural 
and appropriate units of effort in the manual work 
of the schools. 

When children are thus healthily occupied upon 
manual work suitable to their powers and interests, 
other important results are attained as follows : 
(i) a mind-and-sense training in observing form, size. 



230 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

proportion, and relation; (2) a rising consciousness 
of efficiency and power; (3) the growth of leader- 
ship and mutual helpfulness through cooperation ; 
(4) the development of patience and perseverance 
in working out definite constructions to complete- 
ness ; (5) an increasing control of mental and mus- 
cular powers leading to moderate skill with many 
kinds of tools and materials. 

In the following course of study the Supplementary 
Problems marked B are added to the primary series, 
showing further applications of the same constructive 

ideas. 

MANUAL ARTS 

GRADES I AND II 

I. Book Making: 

Problems requiring,, some acquaintance with 
book materials; some choice in the selec- 
tion of materials; some experiences in the 
processes of folding, sewing, and trimming 
the parts intended to form a simple book. 

1. Book for pictures and free cuttings ; Mel- 

ton or other cover paper in colors for 
book and cover; assembling, punch- 
ing, and lacing with cord or ribbon. 

2. Word-book for lists of words ; sheets of 

book or other blank paper for book, 
with manila or linen for cover ; fold- 
ing, cutting, assembling, sewing, trim- 
ming. 



THE MANUAL ARTS 23 1 

3. Portfolio for holding drawings and clip- 
pings ; manila and leatherette for 
cover; binder's cloth for hinge and 
tape for tying ; folding, cutting, past- 
ing, trimming. 
II. Weaving: 

Problems {A) involving " over and under " on 
looms with heddle and needle, using such 
materials as jute or coarse yarn in colors. 

1. Rug for doll house; plain jute with warp 

ends worked into fringe. 

2. Blanket for doll bed ; yarn, ends of warp 

worked in and out, end stripes. 

3. Doll's hammock ; cotton warp, ends caught 

up in rings ; woof of braid or tape. 

4. Candy baskets woven from paper strips, 

plain and in colors ; with and without 
handles. 
{B) Supplementary Problems. 

1. Mat of plain and dyed raffia. 

2. Bag of plain and dyed raffia. 

3. Chains and garlands made up of plain and 

colored paper for tree and room deco- 
rations. 

4. Doll skirts, hats, and mitts woven from 

yarn on notched cardboard forms. 
III. Apparatus Making: 

Problems (^) involving measuring, sawing, 
assembling, nailing, staining. 



232 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

1. Leaf press of ^" or f " soft wood strips, 

brads, and cord. 

2. Boxes for seeds, sand, or plants of ^'' or 

^" soft wood. 

3. Loom of ^'^ board, and ^'^ strip of soft 

wood, and i^'^ nails. 
{B) Supplementary Problems. 

1. Trellis or ladder for flowers, of ^'' and J'^ 

strips of soft wood. 

2. Pinwheel; square of paper, large pin, 

and strip of soft wood. 

3. Trays for paste of folding Bristol. 

4. Boxes for crayons from Bristol or jute 

board. 

I Vo Toy Making : 

Problems {A) involving ideas of size and pro- 
portion; simple joining of parts by gluing, 
nailing, pasting, or lacing. 

1. Cradle, bed, table, chair, cupboard made 

from paper, cardboard, reeds and raffia, 
soft wood. 

2. Cups, plates, bowls from clay with In- 

dian decoration. 

3. Carts, sleds, sailboats of Bristol board, 

cloth, soft wood strips. 

4. Doll house of Bristol board, J'^ or y^ soft 

wood. 

5. Representation of village street with 



THE MANUAL ARTS 233 

church, school, houses, fences, walks, 
etc. 
{B) Supplementary Problems. 

1. Wigwams, tents of paper and cloth, reeds 

and raffia. 

2. Canoes, moccasins, of paper, birch bark, 

cloth. 

3. Spears, bows and arrows of wood and 

cord. 

4. Pipes of clay. 

5. Representation or Indian village. 

6. Animal forms in clay. 

7. Bricks for Eskimo house. 

8. Plaques in low-relief designs in clay. 

9. Lanterns of paper and cardboard. 
10. Dolls and doll dresses from paper. 

GRADES III AND IV 

I. Book Making : 

Problems requiring a more detailed acquaint- 
ance with materials and processes used in 
making {a) the book proper, (h) the book 
cover, with a view to obtaining a service- 
able, artistic product. 

I. Note-book; strawboard, leatherette, and 
manila for cover, book or writing paper 
for book, binder's cloth and cambric 
for hinge; folding, assembling, sewing 
and pasting, pressing and cutting. 



234 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

2. Art-book : strawboard and leatherette for 
cover; Melton or other cover paper 
for book made up of sections folded 
and sewed, or sheets punched and held 
by ribbons. 

II. Weaving: 

Problems {A) requiring some knowledge of 
mats and baskets, both as to structure and 
design. 

1. Rattan mats Nos. 3 and i, — plain and 

in colors. 

2. Rattan baskets with and without covers 

and handles. 

3. Tied-stitch rattan and raffia baskets in 

design. 
{B) Supplementary Problems. 

1. Splint baskets with handles. 

2. Braided and knotted raffia belts and 

bookmarks. 

III. Sewing: 

Problems : 

1. Doll rugs of burlaps, canvas, or scrim. 

2. Pin cases of coarse fabrics. 

3. Pin balls and cushions of wood braid, 

canvas, or silk. 

4. Boxes covered with cretonne or sateen. 

5. Iron-holders of felt, burlaps, canvas, 

gingham, or sateen. 



THE MANUAL ARTS 235 

6. Bean-bags of unbleached cotton, sateen, 

gingham, or denim. 

7. Pencil cases of felt. 
IV. Apparatus Making : 

Problems {A) requiring some experience in 
laying out simple drawings, planing, and 
testing with try-square, boring holes, gluing, 
and nailing ; joining parts of cardboard by 
laps, by punching and lacing. 

1. Sun-dial in J" soft wood. 

2. Weather-vane in ^^ or y^ soft wood. 

3. Molds for brick and plaques. 
(E) Supplementary Problems. 

1. Dutch windmill of ^^ soft wood and 

cardboard. 

2. Bird house of ^^ and y^ soft wood. 

3. Insect case of cardboard with glass top. 
V. Toy Making : 

Problems {A) requiring elementary working 
drawings ; adaptation of paper, cardboard, 
and wood to work of representation. 

1. Games of ring toss and bean bag. 

2. Kites and balloons in paper, wood strips, 

cord, and cloth. 
{E) Supplementary Problems. 

1. Representation of merry-go-round in 

cardboard and wood. 

2. Representation of toboggan slide. 

3. Representation of freight and passenger 



236 COURSE OF STUDY IN THE EIGHT GRADES 

cars and station in paper and card- 
board. 
4. Representation of hook and ladder and 
cart in engine house. 

VI. House Buildmg: 

Problems (A) involving some knowledge of 
plans and elevations of houses and methods 
of representing same ; some acquaintance 
with arrangement of rooms; methods of 
building. 

1. Model of pioneer's log house made of 

small limbs and twigs. 

2. Representation of Greek house in card- 

board. 

3. Representation of Eskimo house in clay. 
(E) Supplementary Problems. 

1. Model of stockade and blockhouse. 

2. Representation of engine house in card- 

board. 

VII. Brick Making: 

Problems involving simple method of molding, 
stacking, and burning brick in a kiln ; quali- 
ties of clay necessary for making brick. 

1. Making of common brick. • 

2. Making of fire-clay brick. 

3. Construction of a brick kiln. 



METiiODS OF ELEMEiNTARY EDUCATION 



By DR. CHARLES A. McMURRY 
COVERING ALL GRADES OF THE COMMON SCHOOL 



THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD . 

THE METHOD OF THE RECITATION (By C. A. and 
F. M. McMurry) 

SPECIAL METHOD IN THE READING OF COM- 
PLETE ENGLISH CLASSICS .... 

SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING AND 
ORAL WORK WITH STORIES .... 

SPECIAL METHOD IN GEOGRAPHY 

SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY .... 

SPECIAL METHOD IN ELEMENTARY SCIENCE . 

SPECIAL METHOD IN ARITHMETIC 

SPECIAL METHOD IN LANGUAGE 



go cents 

go cents 

75 cents 

60 cents 
70 cents 
75 cents 
75 cents 



m PREPARATION 

SCIENCE LESSONS FOR PRIMARY GRADES 

SPECIAL METHOD IN MANUAL TRAINING AND CON- 
STRUCTIVE WORK 



TWO NEW BOOKS OiN GEOGRAPHY 

By Dr. Charles A. McMurry 

EXCURSIONS AND LESSONS IN HOME GEOGRAPHY 

TYPE STUDIES FROM THE GEOGRAPHY OF THE UNITED 
STATES. Each 50 cents, net. 

Two new books for the use of both teachers and pupils. The material 
provided in the Excursions and Lessons constitutes the introductory lessons 
in geography for third and fourth grades. It is the geography of the home 
and the neighborhood. The illustrations are taken from many different 
localities, and are typical of various parts of the country. 

Type Studies is designed to illustrate in some detail the second stage of 
geography study, following the Excursions and Lessons. The purpose of the 
simple type studies given is to introduce children to the geography of our 
own country. This volume also is appropriately illustrated. 



A History of Education in the 
United States 

By EDWIN GRANT DEXTER, Ph.D. 

Professor of Education in the University of Illinois 
$2.00 net 

This new work has been prepared in the behef that the greatest need of the 
student of our educational history is a considerable mass of definite fact upon 
which to base his own generalizations, or with which to interpret those of others, 
rather than extended philosophical discussions of historical trend. Current 
educational literature is rich in the latter, though comparatively barren of the 
former. The present book deals, therefore, with the fact rather than with the 
philosophy of education in the United States. It contains an exceptionally 
valuable equipment of references and bibliographies. 



The Philosophy of Education 

By HERMAN HARRELL HORNE, Ph.D. 

Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Pedagogy in Dartmouth College 

$1.50 net 

This volume is a connected series of discussions on the foundations of edu- 
cation in the related sciences of biology, physiology, sociology, psychology, and 
philosophy. It is not another of the many current manuals of practice, but a 
thoroughgoing interpretation of the nature, place, and meaning of education 
in our world. The newest points of view in the realms of natural and mental 
science are applied to the understanding of educational problems. The field of 
education is carefully divided, and the total discussion is devoted to the philos- 
ophy of education, in distinction from its history, science, and art. The con- 
ceptions of evolution, society, and genetic psychology shed their light upon 
educational phenomena, yielding in the end a comprehensive definition of what 
education is. The various conflicting modern educational opinions are organ- 
ized to a considerable extent, and are made to appear as partial truths of a 
common system. The whole is suffused with the spirit of an idealistic philos- 
ophy in which education is finally made to yield its ultimate meaning as to the 
origin, nature, and destiny of man. 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

64-66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 



BUTLER'S THE MEANING OF EDUCATION . . $i.oo 

CHUBB' S THE STUDY AND TEACHING OF ENG- 
LISH i.oonet 

CUBBERLEY'S SYLLABUS OF HISTORY OF EDU- 
CATION 2.60 net 

DE GARMO'S INTEREST AND EDUCATION . i.oonet 

DUTTON'S SOCIAL PHASES OF EDUCATION . 1.25 

HANUS'S EDUCATIONAL AIMS AND VALUES . 1.00 

HERBART'S OUTLINES OF EDUCATIONAL DOC- 
TRINE 1.25 net 

HERRICK'S THE MEANING AND PRACTICE OF 

COMMERCIAL EDUCATION .... 1.25 net 

KING'S PERSONAL AND IDEAL ELEMENTS IN 

EDUCATION 1.50 net 

KIRKPATRICK'S FUNDAMENTALS OF CHILD 

STUDY 1.25 net 

MONROE'S SOURCE BOOK OF THE HISTORY 

OF EDUCATION 2.25 net 

OPPENHEIM'S MENTAL GROWTH AND CON- 
TROL I.oonet 

DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHILD . . .1.25 net 

REDWAY'S THE NEW BASIS OF GEOGRAPHY i.oonet 

ROWE'S THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE 

CHILD i.oo 

ROYCE'S OUTLINES OF PSYCHOLOGY. . . i.oonet 

SHAW'S SCHOOL HYGIENE . . . . . i.oonet 

SMITH'S TEACHING OF ELEMENTARY MATHE- 
MATICS I.oonet 



A MODERN SCHOOL 

$1.25 Net 

By PAUL H. HANUS 

Professor of the History and Art of Teaching in Harvard University 
Author of "Educational Aims and Educational Values" etc. 

The chapters of which this volume consists, except the last, deal 
with various phases of one central theme : the scope and aims of a 
modern school, and the conditions essential to its highest efficiency. 
The last chapter offers some testimony on the working of the elective 
system, — a contemporary question of great importance to both schools 
and colleges, — but the testimony offered pertains only to the college. 
The first chapter deals specifically with the secondary school; and in 
it the author has endeavored to extend and strengthen certain concep- 
tions set forth in his earlier book. The next seven chapters contain a 
fuller treatment of certain topics than was appropriate or expedient in 
the first chapter, and discuss the internal and external conditions essen- 
tial to a high degree of success in the work of any school. 



PIONEER HISTORY STORIES 

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PIONEERS ON LAND AND SEA -\ 40 

PIONEERS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY \ centS 

PIONEERS OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS AND THE WEST J each 



By DR. CHARLES A. McMURRY 

This series provides excellent supplementary reading matter for 
schools of from the fifth to the eighth grade. In these volumes is told 
the story of the pioneer life of all sections of our country, from the 
epoch-making voyages of Columbus to Major Powell's marvellous jour- 
ney through the Grand Caiion of the Colorado. The stories are com- 
plete and interesting, making the experiences of pioneer life as graphic 
and real as possible. Indeed, the text is made up largely of source 
materials. These narratives, which are accompanied by admirable 
maps and illustrations, constitute the best of all introductions for chil- 
dren to the history and geography of the country. 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

64-66 Fifth Avenue, New York 

CHICAGO BOSTON ATLANTA SAN FRANCISCO 

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